A Most Marvellous Adventure
by KColl2003
Summary: Faith and Xander are sucked into an universe that Xander is intimately familiar with, setting into motion a series of possibly cataclysmic events. Xover with Marvel Comics.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Any characters you recognise belong either to Mutant Enemy or Marvel Comics.

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (1/?)**

Montreal, 2006

Faith forced herself not to stare at Angel. There wasn't much that could cause her battle-hardened stomach twist and feel like she was gonna throw up, but the ruined visage of her once-handsome mentor did it to her every time. She'd been the lead on one of the rescue teams that the Slayer Council had sent in primarily to eliminate the Black Thorns and save L.A, but secondly to rescue Angel's team.

They'd gotten there in time to save Illyria and Angel, but not in time for Spike, not that he was any big loss, Gunn, and Wes. And not in time to save Angel's face, his left cheek was permanently dented inwards as if he'd been stamped on by a horse or somethin', and his right cheek had three still pus-seeping furrows that ran down from just below his eye to his jaw-line.

She hated to imagine what sorta creature could do that to a being with Angel's healing capabilities.

Ever since then, Angel had been renegade and utterly obsessed with hunting down Black Thorns wherever he could find them. The ensoulled vampire worked with Illyria, the demon-human hybrid called the Groosaluug, and his son, Angel had a freakin' son, that had been a hell of a shock, Connor. The entire operation was funded by some computer geek by the name of Nabbit, allowing them to go all over the globe hunting the demonic powerhouses. They'd hit Albania, Egypt, Somalia, Brazil, the Philippines, and Cuba in the past year, carnage and mayhem following in their path.

And that was why she and Xand were here. The Slayer Council didn't particularly like independents goin' 'round starting fights with bad assess like the Circle of Black Thorn, but they also didn't want a war with a group as tough as Angel's, especially as they were on the same side. As she was just about the only Slayer that trusted Angel and was trusted by him, she'd been assigned to his group as 'liaison'.

As for X…. Faith glanced out of the corner of her eye at the man sat slouched to her left. Her and Wood had been datin' for somethin' like four months when Xan had turned up at their Cleveland base. He'd been there for less than a month when she'd realised a difference in the respect and friendship she got from Xan, and the condescension that Wood treated her with. Realising she deserved better than the way Wood treated her, she'd broken up with Wood and forced\charmed her way into a partnership with Xan.

From there they'd worked as the Council's trouble-shooters for eight months, and then they'd gotten the job working with Angel. It was weird, a half-smile tugged at her lips, she and Harris bitched pretty much constantly at one another, mostly 'bout her catting around and him keepin' everyone at arm's length, but when it came to fightin', they had it down.

"Sorry," Faith forced her eyes and attention towards the scarred vampire, "you were saying?"

Angel didn't smile at her inattention, but then his smiles had gotten even rarer since LA. Faith didn't know if it was the loss of Cordy, his friends, or the scarring that caused it, she just noticed and mourned their absence. "Bulle Corne is a Quebec dark arts sorcerer, he's outwardly human but worships Apis." Angel stared hard at her, she closed her mouth, the inevitable question dying there. "Apis is a bull-deity once worshipped in Memphis-."

"Tennessee?" Xander queried.

Faith bit back a chuckle as she watched the vampire count to ten before speaking. Whatever else changed, Xander could always be relied on to wind Angel up. "No, Memphis, Egypt," Angel replied. "In reality though, he's an Old One who grants physical power and durability to his followers. The more devout the disciple, the more power he grants them."

"So Bulle Corne is a bad-ass?" Faith queried.

"Yeah, very strong, but he's not only physically powerful," Angel replied. "He's also the suspiciously sole descendant of six generations of one of Quebec's wealthiest families and a talented dark arts mage-."

"Suspiciously sole?" Connor put in.

"He had two younger siblings, but both died in questionable accidents while still in their mid-teens. Corne's used his wealth to obtain a number of expensive occult artefacts and books that he protects via a crew of ex Special Forces trained goons guarding him, and he owns a walled mansion in one of Montreal's most exclusive suburbs."

"But he's got more power than the lot of them?" Connor queried. The boy's father nodded.

"'Bout right for these Black Thorns," Faith commented.

Angel nodded, Faith admitted silently that the darkness in her mentor's eyes creeped her out more than a little, but then he always saved his full-on psycho for just before the conclusion of a hunt. "There's rumours that Bulle's the remaining pre-eminent Black Thorn on the continent, so we've gotta get him."

* * *

"Come on man!" Faith panted impatiently as she pulled Xander over the wall behind her. In the distance she could hear the sound of gunfire and Angel's gang engaging Corne's hired thugs. As always Angel had offered to send Groo or Connor with her, as always she'd demurred 'cause Xan was loyal to her, and she always repaid loyalty with loyalty.

Just ask Mayor Wilkins.

Faith shoved that bittersweet memory aside as she stalked through the darkened grounds, Xander a ghost behind her. It wasn't as if Xan wasn't good at what he did, he'd been doin' it for years before her pretty lil tushy had come along, and she'd trained him intensely since she'd decided upon their partnership. So he had to be good, he just didn't have the advantages of Connor or Groo. But she'd chosen him and he'd accepted, so she owed him respect and loyalty, and that was that.

The mansion loomed over them as Faith put the shaft of her battle-axe through the first window they reached, wincing slightly as an alarm burst out. "He had to know we were here anyway," Xander commented as he climbed through the window after her.

"Yeah," Faith looked left and right. As expected the corridors were plushly decorated, fluffy red carpet and expensive wallpaper, the walls also adorned with artefacts from several times and regions. "According to Angel's intel, Bulle spends all his nights in the basement, worshipping, studying, and casting."

"There's a stairway this way," Xander nodded to the left.

"Let's hustle."

* * *

"Abli, korna, pularza, coola." Sweat beaded down the face of the fat but powerfully built man clad in full-length scarlet robes as they burst through into the mansion's basement. Candles flickered in every corner, illuminating the nine-pronged sigil drawn in blood on the floor, but then a cold wind blew through the basement, extinguishing them and blanketing the room in darkness.

But the man still continued to chant, his booming voice raising hairs on the back of Xander's neck as it echoed around the room. "What's he sayin'?" Faith queried in a whisper, dark eyes filling with disquiet as she hefted her battle-axe.

"Do you think I talk gibberish?" Xander muttered.

"I've heard you discussin' Sci-fi with Andrew, so I'm gonna go with a hell yeah," Faith snarked. "But whatever he's sayin', it's creepy as fuck."

Xander stared nervously at the shadow-shrouded sorcerer, noting the shimmering, energy crackling cloud forming behind him. "Well maybe you should shut him up."

"Way ahead of you, Harris." The Slayer beauty's axe came up and then flew towards the sorcerer's head. The mage raised a contemptuous hand, deflecting the axe into the wall to his left, but completely failed to note Faith's discreetly flung dagger that landed in the man's throat. "Ha," Faith snorted as the enchanter toppled onto his back, "suck-."

"SHIT!" Xander exploded when he was lifted off his feet and dragged towards the cloud above the downed man, the suddenly wailing Slayer dragged beside him, a blazing light that threatened to burn his eyeballs out engulfing him.

* * *

The air hummed with the roar of car engines in the distance and was filled with the disparate scents of humanity. "Whoa." Ignoring her own throbbing head and queasy stomach, Faith grabbed Xander as he almost toppled to the refuse-strewn ground and pushed him against the bricked wall. "Stay there big guy," she soothed as she glanced disdainfully at the corpse of the sorcerer at their feet and then around the road light-illuminated alley they found themselves in.

Faith's vision tilted then righted itself after a shake of her head. "Wherever we are we ain't in Kansas anymore Toto," she muttered. Seeing a yellowed newspaper wedged under an over-turned trash can, she kicked the steel receptacle way and scooped it up. Her eyes widened as she read the paper's headline. "What the fuck?" She glanced at her companion and then back at the paper, unable to believe the world-tilting evidence of her own eyes. "This ain't possible."

"Oh look, tender meat."

* * *

"Hello Robert."

Robert sat up, the colour draining from his face as he regarded the fedora and trenchcoat-wearing figure staring evilly at him. "Y….you can't be here, I…I haven't-."

"Used your powers?" the intruder finished for him with a smirk. "I know, my power grows daily," he couldn't help but flinch when his adversary waved a hand through the lampshade. "Unfortunately I'm not corporeal. Yet." The intruder's smile widened. "But in a few days, a week at the most, my grasp on existence will be such that I will be independently corporeal and capable of inflicting my will on this pathetic planet and its so-called champions."

"I won't let you," he mumbled, shock befuddling his senses as he tried to tear his eyes away from his nemesis.

"And how are you going to stop me?" the interloper taunted. "You can't kill yourself, you're invulnerable. And as long as you're here, so am I-."

"Then," Robert leapt to his feet and flew upwards, through the ceiling and the roof, derbies flying everywhere as he raced to the dark sky above, "I'll not be here again!"

* * *

He peered upwards, grinning at the holes in the ceiling and roof, his victim already nothing more than a speck in the distance. It seemed that this dimension's champions might be considerably more powerful than the dimension he'd come from, but it appeared they were just as malleably gullible.

* * *

177A Bleecker Street, New York City

His blood chilled as something indefinable yet certainly horrible swirled up out of nowhere to collide with and engulf the world. Sweat clung to his forehead as he threw his sheets aside and rose. There'd be no sleep for him tonight.

* * *

Uatu's broad brow creased with worry as he watched events unfold on earth and realised what was happening. "Why, aren't you quite the little Buddha?"

Uatu turned to face the interloper, his eyes narrowing. The intruder appeared to be Thanos, Death's Herald, but he wasn't fooled by such cheap parlour tricks. "This is not your dimension," he warned.

The Titan smirked. "So, banish me already." Uatu glared impotently at the laughing Herald of Death. "You could stop as easy as clicking your fingers." The inter-dimensional interloper shook his head. "But you won't. And now that Reynolds is gone, that's one less threat for me to worry about."

"There are others that can stop you," he warned.

"Maybe, but I'll deal with them in due process," the stranger confidently replied. "And soon, soon I'll be more powerful than anything in this dimension. The interstellar empires of the Kree, Skrull, and Shi'ar will fall before me, and The Living Tribunal, Abraxus, Atum, and their like will learn to quail at my approach!"


	2. Chapter 2

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (2/?)**

Faith's eyes narrowed as she looked towards the alley entrance and the seven 'men' there. They were all looked to be 'bout the same age, late twenties to early thirties, all dressed in wife-beaters and frayed denims. Experience and her senses told her there was somethin' off 'bout them, like they were vampires only not.

Then the lead one's eyes flashed golden and that more or less settled that. "Kill the man, keep the girl."

Faith's eyes rolled. Typical, her life was one long slasher flick. But wherever they where, she was still the Slayer and she still knew how to deal with vampires. Faith rocked back on her feet as if she was about to retreat, a manufactured look of terror on her face. Then the moment the grinning goons started forward, she leapt into the air, knockin' the first two to the ground with a leaping clothesline to their chests.

Faith hit the ground in a crouch, blocking a left hook to the face on her forearm before twisting at the waist and sinking a stake into her attacker's chest. The demon's mouth half-opened in a gasp as he exploded into dust.

"Ooof!" Faith grunted and staggered when another of the demons caught her with a kick to the gut. Out of the corner of the eye she saw Xander snake past her to engage her assailant.

"Aaaah!" Faith grunted when another vampire grabbed her by her thick mane and yanked her head back, her elbow shooting up and back to crash into the demon's jaw. The moment her attacker's grip loosened, she spun into a backfist that her rival ducked under. Her adversary failed to avoid the follow-up knee she drove into its gut, doubling it up. Faith grunted when someone caught her with a knee or fist to the back, pain exploding down her legs, but ignored it to drive a back-heel kick up and into her attacker's chest, then kick off him and into a flying stake of the vampire straightening in front of her.

Faith crashed through the dust to hit the ground in a crouch, spin around and dive back into the melee with a full-blooded laugh. Ducking under a straight right, she kicked her rival on the inside of his knee and down onto her raising stake. She started to revolve into a spin-kick only to be grabbed around the crotch and neck, and thrown into the alley's trashcans.

She hit the ground on her hands and sprung up into a boxer's stance, blood flew from her mouth when a demon caught her with a left uppercut to the jaw, coppery fluid filling her mouth. She staggered, blocked a right on her arm, and retaliated with a leaping thrust kick to the chest that knocked her attacker into a back-flip.

Then HE dropped from the sky and business really picked up.

* * *

Blade dropped off the roof and into the greatly depleted band of vampires that he'd been tracking throughout the night. He didn't bother to wonder just who Leathers and her companion was, just got to work finishing the rest of the vampires off.

His katana shot out to the right, slicing through the neck of the demon stood there, while his teakwood dagger thrust through the chest of the vampire stood to his left. He pirouetted out of the way of another demon's lunge, his blade slicing through the back of the bloodsucker's neck. The vampire had barely begun to explode when he was ducking through its ashes, brushing off a kick that thudded into his side, and reverse-swinging his katana through the last of the vampire's necks.

"Holy shit, you don't fuck about do you?"

Blade glanced towards the dark-eyed beauty, her full lips parted in a smirk and flowing mane resting on the shoulders of her faded denim jacket, her black gym vest pulled tight over her ample bosom, and black leather pants emphasising every curve of her legs, hips, and ass. "I find it's best not to."

"Yeah," amusement flickered in the husky-voiced brunette's pool-like eyes, "I hear that."

"You're, you're Blade."

His gaze spun towards the bombshell's companion, a six foot muscular dark-haired guy with one eye covered by a patch and the other filled with compassion and humour. "I know you?" he curtly demanded.

"Um," the boy blinked at his terse tone, but then he wasn't known as a people person. "Maybe not." The youth rubbed at the blood trickling down his face before continuing. "But I know you, you were born in the late nineteenth century, and in the Soho district of London, to a pro-, to Tara Brooks-."

Before he knew it Blade was lunging forward, grabbing the youth by his throat and ramming him into the wall behind him. "How do you know my mother's name!" he roared, fangs gleaming in his mouth.

"Hey back off!" The girl's impossibly strong hand grabbed him by his collar and flung him to the other side of the alley, taking up a protective stance between him and the boy, almost like a mother lion protecting her cubs. "Xan's just kinda a comic book geek, so he knows a lotta 'bout you people. And holy shit, you look a hell of a lot like Wesley Snipes. Nice biceps by the way."

Blade stared from the girl to the boy as he tried and failed to process what was being said. "Comic books?"

"I can prove it," Blade tensed when 'Xan' reached inside his jacket, only to relax slightly when the boy pulled out a crumpled magazine, "have a look at the front."

"Jesus Xan." The brunette groaned when she took it and threw it to his feet. "We were on a mission, you could at least try for a little professionalism."

The young man flushed. "It helps doesn't it?" rejoined the boy.

Blade risked a glance down, blinking as he read the title. "Daredevil Vol 2 88?"

"Yeah," the young man glared at his companion before looking towards him, "and I also know you were trained by Jamal Afari."

"Okay," Blade looked from the girl to the guy and back again. "How about you explain all this?"

"Like I said," the girl's voice was steady, untroubled, but her eyes told a different tale. They said that if he made a move towards her companion, she'd rip him a new asshole. "The world we come from, you're a comic book character, so's Spiderman, Batman-."

"Different verses," the man interjected.

"What. Ever. I went to see 'Batman Begins' with ya, don't push it." The girl shot her companion an irritated look. "Like I said, I'm not fluent in geek. Point is, the dimension we're from, you're a fictional character."

"Huh, huh." It was in his nature to be instinctively sceptical, but the boy knew an awful lot about him and there was the damn comic. "So how did you get here?"

"What did I grow a beard and start lookin' like Merlin?" The girl shot him a volcanically scathing look. "All I know we were fightin' some big-shot sorcerer. I killed him, that's his corpse lying on the ground, but his spell continued and we ended up here."

"Dimensional magics?" Blade mused. "I'll have to take you to see the Sorcerer Supreme."

"We're gonna see Dr. Strange! How cool is that!" exulted the young man.

"Jesus," the brunette shook her head, "we jump dimensions, and you're still an embarrassment."

* * *

Xander looked left and right as Blade led them through the cool night, eyes hungrily eating up the Bohemian scenery of Greenwich Village, the coffee shops, art galleries, and independent theatres. "We're here," their guide announced with a grunt.

"Huh?" Faith sceptically exclaimed. "All I see is a condemned apartment block with a sign in front of it saying it's to be replaced by a Starbucks."

"Magic," Xander impatiently explained. "Only those specifically invited like Blade can see what it really looks like."

Blade shot him an irritated glance, clearly his knowledge was annoying the hell out of the black dhampir. "And only those that Strange would invite if he knew and approved of their wish to see him can approach the building without feeling nervous and queasy." Blade looked at him and Faith in turn before looking towards the apparently condemned building. "Go on."

Faith raised an eyebrow and shot him a questioning glance. After a second he nodded. Clearly this was another test, but Xander was sure they'd pass. The beautiful Slayer let out one of her long-suffering sighs, a sound he'd become intimately familiar with over the last two years. "'Kay," Faith nodded, "let's get this mystical shit over with."

The moment they stepped onto the block, the run-down apartment block shimmered and disappeared to be replaced by a three-storey townhouse. Blade jogged up the three steps leading up to the house's arched doorway and pulled on the door's bell-rope.

Xander's breath caught as the door creaked open and a slender, line-faced Oriental with gentle eyes dressed in black silk pyjamas. "Wong," he gasped.

The man-servant's gaze flitted to him and them back to Blade. The Oriental half-bowed. "Honoured Blade, as always it is a privilege to see you. Please, bring your companions inside, the Doctor is up. He sensed a mystical disturbance."

"Hum," the dhampir looked towards them and back at the man-servant, "why am I not surprised?"

"Ah," understanding filled the Oriental's kindly eyes, "in that case the Doctor will be doubly pleased to see you. Please, follow me."

"I can't believe we're in The Sanctum Sanctorum," Xander reverently whispered as they entered the entrance hall and started up the dimly-lit stairs.

"I can't believe I actually asked you to be my Watcher," Faith muttered. "A world filled with super-heroes, boy do I feel redundant."

Xander smirked. "Hey don't worry at least you've got the Wonder Twins."

"What are ya babblin' 'bout?" Faith's brow furrowed as she looked at her companion then followed his eyes down to her chest. "Hey!!!"

"I can just tell your partnership's all roses," Blade commented.

Faith sighed. "Oh you have no idea."

* * *

Strange looked up as the doorway to his occult library creaked open and Wong strode in, followed by Blade and a pair of strangers. His eyes narrowed as he registered the pair of strangers trailing behind the vampire hunter. "You're the cause of the dimensional disturbance!"

The young man reared back at his sudden outburst, but the femme fatale just stared unblinkingly at him. "Victims of -, not cause of," the curvy brunette corrected.

"You don't mind if I don't take you at your word," Strange replied.

The brunette tilted her head to one side and shot him a shit-eating smirk. "Don't mind at all, Doc."

Blade stepped into the tight silence that followed the beauty's rejoinder. "I found these two in a fight with a bunch of vampires and a dead body. They've got a hell of a story to tell."

"Then by all means," Strange summonsed a trio of red leather-upholstered easy chairs, "please take a seat and talk." He looked towards Wong. "Could you get our guests some drinks my friend?" As the duo talked, explaining their world and their position in it, how they had gotten here, and how their world was thought of in theirs, Strange cast a number of discreet spells, checking the duo's honesty, character, and histories. Surprised and intrigued by what he saw and heard, he sat back in thought as the duo finally fell silent. "You've got a very interesting story, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of my companions if you don't mind?"

"Sure," Xander beamed at him, "we'd love to!"

"Oh shit," Faith groaned as she slapped her forehead. "You just keep leadin' with your chin don't ya?"

Strange tried and failed to stop a smile from tugging up the corners of his mouth. Xavier and Richards would be very interested to meet this duo.


	3. Chapter 3

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (3/?)**

Genosha

Magneto rose from his throne, his hackles rising at the aged man who'd just shuffled into his throne room. "You dare come in here wearing that face?"

His guest smiled mockingly before morphing from his deceased father to his deceased mother. "Would you prefer this one?"

"I'd prefer you weren't here at all." It was an effort but Magneto forced his temper under control. "Be gone before I lose my temper."

His mother smiled mockingly. "And do what exactly, Erik? I'm incorporeal, totally immune to your powers. However things do not need to be hostile between us, on the contrary, I'm here to discuss an alliance."

"An alliance to do what?" Magneto demanded, hating every second he spent talking to this sneering impostor.

"Why what else but conquer the world, and then the universe."

His interest quickening, Magneto leaned forward. "I'm listening."

* * *

Latveria

"Hello son."

Doom felt his heart miss a beat even as he used his sensors to determine the being before him was in fact not his father. "You take a great risk coming here and wearing that face."

"Oh I'm sorry," the being stood before him changed into a tiny blonde, "is this better?"

"Barely," he grated, "but Doom does not happily suffer intrusions."

"You'll suffer this one," the blonde predicted with a smile, "because I've come here to discuss an alliance that will suit both of our aims."

* * *

Asgard

Loki strode through the Asgardian country-side, rolling meadows on either side and the sun from the cloudless sky beaming down on him. Yet despite his idyllic surroundings, anger and hatred festered in his chest. His eyes widened as he saw a towering, thick-set figure in the distance. The powerfully-built figure was dressed in his traditional black leather hauberk and his head was bald and eyes like blue ice. "Skurge," he barely breathed then shook his head, "no you're not him at all. You're something different, something old when the Elders of the Universe were young."

"How astute," Skruge flashed him an uncharacteristically wise smile, "it's because of that astuteness I've come to you."

"I'm adept and experienced in trickery and deception; I can see it in others." Loki replied. "Why are you here?"

"I've come here to get your assistance," 'Skruge' replied.

"My assistance to do what?" Loki stared fearlessly at the apparition.

"Why conquer this world and universe." Skruge scowled at his laugh. "You're a God, you can feel my power, you know I have the power to deliver you Asgard."

Deliver him Asgard. Loki smiled at the alluring thought before nodding. "Very well," he replied. "I'm in."

Skruge nodded. "There's others I have to visit, but soon you my lieutenants, will aid me in commanding an empire that spans this entire galaxy."

Loki stared sceptically at the mysterious interloper. "I'll look forward to that."

* * *

Bang, bang.

Fury pulled his feet off his desk and stubbed out his cigar in the ash-tray before letting out his customary grunt. "Yeah."

"It's Hill," he sniffed at his second in command's supercilious tone, she was a fine operative but had the people skills of an alligator, except with more teeth, "and Dr. Samson."

"Come in," he growled.

The door swung open and the slight brunette strode in, followed by the titanic green-haired doctor. "Please, take a seat." He raised an eyebrow as Samson sat, the chair creaking slightly under his four hundred pound bulk. "I trust you've done your interviews with our guests." Samson looked uncomfortable, a little embarrassed. "You have been with them all afternoon." His eyebrow lifted again when he peered at his watch. "For five hours."

"I might have been with them for five hours, but they're not exactly co-operative," the green-haired powerhouse rumbled. "Faith deflects queries with a constant barrage of aggression mixed with," a brief look of embarrassment flickered over the thickly-muscled shrink's face, "highly sexual flirtation, while Xander quips incessantly."

Fury stared levelly at the organisation's shrink. "Strange brought these two kids in this morning, he and Richards spent all morning testing them. Sir Francis Bacon said 'knowledge is power', and I want as much information as possible so I can decide what to do about them. You're a trained shrink, surely you're not telling me you have absolutely nothing to add?"

"Well not nothing," Samson admitted.

Fury turned on the room's tape recorder. "Let's hear it."

* * *

Strange sighed as he ended the spell that had enabled him to eavesdrop on SHIELD's director and his briefing with the green-haired psychiatrist. Samson's words had given him considerable food for thought, while some of his revelations had added weight to his heart. "Sometimes the world is a harsh place," he muttered. With an effort he forced the sadness and anger under control before uttering a quick spell that transported him to his mansion and waiting guests.

"I trust you've examined these interlopers?" Namor arrogantly demanded as he materialised.

Strange raised an eyebrow as he passed around his reports. The Atlantis ruler was nothing if not jarringly consistent. "Yes," Richards spoke for him, the board room filled with the other members of their august and highly secretive group, "I've run scientific exams and Stephen has run magical tests on both of the inter-dimensional travellers. I could explain the specifics, but in shorthand the results of both sets of tests agree that the duo have travelled here from another dimension." Reed looked towards him. "The method of transport was definitely magical in origin and not of their making."

"With the assistance of Blade we also got hold of the corpse that came with the pair," Strange put in. "Both myself and Reed ran tests on it and discerned that something travelled here on it. We're not exactly sure what, but whatever it was it was very old."

A long silence followed his announcement. "And what of their stories, do they tell the truth?" The Sub-Mariner demanded. "Is their earth truly filled with demons?"

"So it would appear," Strange replied. This Council Xander had described was quite fascinating as was the Slayer Line. Although perhaps monstrous would be a better word to describe the Slayer Line and idiotic to describe the Mass-Empowering.

Namor looked towards Xavier. "I understand Samson questioned them? What of their character? Are they likely to be a threat to this world?"

"We're very fortunate actually," Xavier commented. "Given Faith's abilities, past, and personality, we're lucky we're not looking at a possible Castle-like rampage through the city's pimps, child pornographers, and paedophiles."

"Such vile creatures are not tolerated on Atlantis," rumbled Namor.

Stark raised an eyebrow. "Lucky's not the word I'd use to describe that sort of scum still being able to breathe, but leaving that aside, she's that dangerous?"

"She's that damaged," interjected Strange. "There's a core of hurt at the Slayer's centre, but also remorse for the evil she's done."

"The murders and working for demons," Stark disapproved. "She's a loose cannon."

Strange shook his head. "Come now old friend. Many of us sat here have done worse and with far less reason or far less excuse."

"Duly noted," Richards broke in. "But she's sane?"

"Sane, but hurt," Xavier commented. "She shows signs of a nervous breakdown, a psychotic break actually. She's recovered exceptionally well though, and appears to hold herself to a strict code of behaviour and honour despite her apparent devil-may-care attitude."

"And her companion?" Richards queried.

"Xander is in some ways even more intriguing than the Slayer," Strange pursed his lips together. "The life he's led has left its scars on his psyche, both childhood neglect and his teens spent fighting demons. Despite that he's unstintingly loyal to those he considers his friends and hides a determined bravery behind a flippant sarcasm. He's motivated not by guilt like the Slayer, but by a burning desire to protect people, in addition for a need for a purpose, to prove himself to be worth more than his parents."

"And just how powerful is the Slayer?" Namor demanded in his typically haughty tone.

Xavier grimaced. "I've only done preliminary testing so far, but I intend to take them to the mansion and have Logan test them thoroughly in the Danger Room."

"Then it's true?" demanded Namor, his imperious tones filled with scepticism. "In the world they come from, we are characters of fiction?"

Strange chuckled and nodded, that had been quite some revelation, the idea that in the newcomers' dimension not only did they not exist, they were mythological heroes. "According to Xander there's an entire industry built up around us," he chuckled again, a rare amusement filling his chest, momentarily lightening the worries he always carried around with him. "Not just comics but also animated TV serieses, action figures, video games, merchandise, theme park rides, and even blockbuster movies." A smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. "Those amongst us who don't have Tony's money should consider suing for a piece of the action."

"Robert Downey Jr.'s going to play me in a movie?" Stark ruminated then grinned. "Yeah, I can see that."

"Jessica Alba played my wife," Richards gleefully commented.

Stark glared at the Fantastic Four's leader. "Okay, you win," the inventor gruffly conceded.

"I cannot believe they made a movie about that freak Ghost Rider, but not I king of Atlantis!" fumed Namor.

"If it's any comfort Xander said '"Ghost Rider blew monkey chunks'," Strange soothed. "I'm given to understand that means it's quite bad."

Namor glowered. "It is scant consolation," he haughtily replied.

"Thought it might be," muttered Stark.

"I don't think you've thought the repercussions of Xander's knowledge through," Xavier gravely commented. "Secrets can be dangerous, and he knows a frighteningly amount of information about us."

"I'd say," Richards agreed, "if not for his companion you'd think he'd never seen a woman."

"And in the wrong hands this sort of knowledge could cause us serious trouble," Strange agreed. "And he knows a lot, secret identities, limits, weaknesses, mistakes we've made."

"We could always silence them."

"Ever the pragmatist Namor," Xavier shook his head. "If we did that, we'd be no better than those we claim to oppose."

"Then what do you plan to do?" Namor demanded. The Atlantean monarch sniffed at the silence that greeted his question. "I thought as much."

Xavier glared steely-eyed at the arrogant sea-dweller. "Don't think about moving against them without our agreement, for now they're under our protection."

Namor smiled stiffly. "For now you say? I can wait."

* * *

Xander looked around the sterile-looking room he'd been shown to by several formidably-efficient SHIELD agents. The place was utterly lifeless, with just a bed and a TV in it. Still, he couldn't help but grin, he didn't know how or why they were here, just that they were in a world where the freakin' Marvel verse was REAL!

Head still shaking, he picked up the TV-Guide and read through it. "A world where the Gilmore Girls was never made and Tru Calling is starting its fourth season? Truly this is a better world."


	4. Chapter 4

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (4/?)**

"Oh wow!"

Faith glanced away from the sprawling, old-fashioned mansion the chauffer-driven SUV they were back-seat passengers in was driving into and to the excitedly bouncing man beside her. Man, Faith's nose wrinkled in amusement, in the last 48 hours he'd been acting more like a kid. "The Council head-quarters is bigger," she pointed out.

"Yeah," Xander's eyes gleamed with excitement as he turned towards her, "but this is the X-Mansion!"

Faith chuckled as she sunk back in the leather seat. To be honest she'd been a bit of the comics reader as a kid, borrowing issues of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and of-course the cool as fuck Elektra, from the guys in the home. Then she'd hit her teens and started filling out, and had found other things to do with her time. But hell, she'd stopped readin' the things over a decade ago. Harris, he spent close to a hundred bucks a month on the damn things.

Not that the house wasn't impressive. Faith looked around as the SUV pulled to a halt in a tiled courtyard, the expansive mansion looming over them on three sides like a grasping hand, and the immaculately gardened grounds. Yeah, she just bet this place cost a hell of a lot.

The mansion's double-doors opened as she and Xander climbed out of the car, a tall, thick-set man pushing out the bald-headed wheel-chair bound man she recognised as Professor Xavier. "Good day to you both, thank you for joining us."

Xavier nodded. "Please follow us in."

Faith half-smiled, the mutant reminded her a lot of Giles, he had the Watcher's genteel manners, but beneath them all there was the same steel core. The two of them followed their host inside, the house decorated with tasteful class, and filled with the noise of chattering kids in the distance.

"I apologise for the noise," their host commented, "but I've always believed a place where students feel free to express themselves is best for learning, not to mention a more welcoming home."

"Yeah," Xander nodded, a barely discernable but there note of longing in his voice, "I can see that." Faith glanced at her Watcher, guessing the one-eyed man was thinking 'bout his past. Faith suddenly realised she didn't know much about her companion's past, but suddenly a whole lot of things fell into place. The jokes, the constant deflections, the sudden and quickly-smothered rages, it all added up. Shit, Faith felt a flicker of guilt, it hadn't registered with her before now, but she and Harris had a lot more in common than just Slaying.

"I'm taking you to the Danger Room," Xavier continued. "Once there, I'll have Logan run you through the simulations-."

"Wolverine?" Faith rolled her eyes at Xander's gushing. "This is so cool!"

"Xander," Faith drawled, "these fan-boy outbursts better stop, otherwise I'm wirin' your embarassin' jaw shut."

Xander huffed. "Well excuse me for being enthusiastic."

"Enthusiastic?" Faith shook her head. "Like I said, embarrassing's the word."

Xavier chuckled as Colossus pulled him to a halt by a vault-like door with a keypad by its left side. "I keep this place locked up so that the students can't get in and use it unsupervised. Only my team-members have the code."

"I wouldn't imagine a simple keypad could keep some of your students out," Xander commented.

"No I don't suppose it would," Xavier nodded. "But it works as a symbol about just how seriously I take this room." The bald-headed mutant pressed his thumb into the print sensor and pressed his eyes against the optical nerve reader, a light flashing.

"Subject Identified, Charles Xavier, Access Granted," an impersonal female voice announced, the vault doors sliding apart.

A few seconds later and she and Xander were walking in a sterile, spherical room with gleaming blue walls. Xavier stayed outside, a slight smile on his face. "Enjoy yourself."

"Yeah," Faith looked up to the over-hanging observation room to the short but thick-set man with long brown sideburns, dangerous eyes, and world-weary features. "Bring it on."

* * *

Xavier locked his office door behind him before turning on his lap-top and tunnelling his way into the video-conferencing program concealed on his laptop. It was a well hidden program, he had to open three new documents on his word processor and type a specific sentence in each of the three documents and nothing else, then open his email program, enter the second of his two passwords to his one account, and send a blank email to . Then another screen appeared with the fellow think-tank members appeared.

"Hello Charles," Reed greeted, "have you completed the tests?"

"Yes," Charles nodded. "I haven't shared the results with the pair yet because they're a little surprising."

"How so?" Stark asked.

"You remember in the biographies I gave you Xander made mention of being possessed by a Primal spirit?" Xavier asked.

"A hyena wasn't it?" Stark commented.

"Yes," Xavier nodded. "The magical journey somehow reactivated some of that possession as a side-effect. Now even its full primal form, the hyena isn't much of a threat in this world and Xander isn't anywhere near fully possessed, perhaps twenty percent. Nevertheless, it has given him some advantages over normals."

"Such as?" Namor demanded.

"Greater than human spatial awareness, improved night and distance vision, hearing and smelling far more acute than normal, although not quite to the levels of the like of Wolverine or Daredevil. His reflexes, durability, stamina, and strength are all at the peak of human abilities. Now he's not even aware of these changes himself, he's sub-consciously adapting to them. Once told however, he'll begin adapting, and using them."

"Is this hyena likely to take a greater possession of him?" queried Reed.

Xavier shook his head before directing his gaze not to the leader of the Fantastic Four but to the Sorcerer Supreme. "I'd appreciate it if you ran tests of your own, Stephen, but I don't believe so, I just think the spell that transported them here was so powerful that it part triggered his previous possession."

"So what Danger Level do you class them both as?" Namor queried, his voice filled with its usual impatience.

"Faith is a 'Level D', together with the likes of Blade & Iron Fist, while Xander is a 'Level E', together with the likes of Hawkeye, Moon Knight, or Winter Soldier," Xavier reported. "They work well together as a team, more than competent. According to Wolverine, Xander is a competent barroom brawler, while Faith is a more interesting case."

"How so?" Stark queried.

"She appears to be the master of more than half a dozen martial arts, however it's a far from seamless mastery," Xavier explained. "For example sometimes she'll use a block when a throw might have been the more expedient move, or a kick when a punch would have been more likely to succeed."

"I've had a look at the teleportation spell," Strange grimaced. "There are certain difficulties and dangers inherent in it, I doubt we'll be able to send them home immediately."

"Then they remain here and no matter their comparatively low power level, they continue to be a threat," Namor intoned.

"Not to you," Reed pointed. "The world already knows who you are."

"The world doesn't know who Daredevil is, who Spiderman is. Besides we all have other secrets besides our identities!" Everyone squirmed at Namor's exclamation. "Many of our super-powered brethren are at risk, their privacy and safety guarded only by this duo's uncertain honour!"

"So far I've found nothing uncertain about either's honour," Xavier stiffly reported.

"And I doubt you're overly worried about either Spiderman or Daredevil."

Namor shook his head. "We do not know enough of them to make such a judgement."

"And until we do, we haven't made a decision either way about them," Stark firmly replied.

Namor pursed his lips and shook his head. "We are taking unnecessary risks."

* * *

Xander crouched down by the side of the one of the X-Mansion's ponds, his sour face meaning any of the students passing by gave him a wide berth. "Bit of a shaker, hey stud?"

Xander stiffened at his companion's voice behind him. "I need to be alone," he grunted.

"Yeah, well I need a new Harley, so my guess is neither of us are gonna be happy any time soon," Faith airily replied before sinking into a crouch beside him, her arms wrapped around her knees. "What's the big deal 'bout this hyena shit?"

"You know what that hyena almost did to Buffy." Shame prevented him from looking at his companion.

Faith shrugged, Xander's breath caught as a stray beam of light caught the Slayer's face, blanketing it in a golden glow. "Buffy had been a Slayer for just a few months when you tried that on, you tried it with me or her now, we'd stop you easy." Faith looked towards him. "Thanks for caring an' all, but it's not like the hyena's in control is it?"

"No but-."

"Was I you," Faith leaned back on her hands and rotated her head in slow circle, eyes closed as the curvy Bostonian enjoyed the sun on her face, "I'd get used to having the hyena inside you, enjoy it-."

"Enjoy it, last time I had it-."

"Yeah, you did a bunch of bad stuff," Faith interrupted his tirade. "Maybe you should think 'bout putting the hyena to better use this time?"

"It's not as simp-," Xander's voice trailed off when a dot in the sky began getting nearer and nearer until the dot was clearly recognisable.

"Wow, it's Namor!" Xander gasped as the super-hero landed on the ground behind them, spinning to face him. "Um," Xander reddened. "That is to say King Namor, your highness, um how do I address you? I'm a republican you see," Xander smiled weakly, belatedly registering how inane his babble sounded, "small 'r' of course."

"Oh god," Faith moaned, "so far you're battin' a hundred in the humiliation stakes."

"SILENCE!" the ocean-dwelling monarch bellowed before continuing in a hard tone. "I've heard the tale of your arrival in this dimension. The others amongst my number seem content to trust to your honesty and discretion, but I am far from convinced-."

"Yeah well, consider me untroubled by your lack of conviction," Xander groaned as Faith predictably got in the Sub-Mariner's face.

"Faith," Xander reached out a hand to grab Faith's shoulder and pull her back. "My apologies sire," he forced a smile at the king. "My friend isn't as aware of your world as I am, and doesn't understand the importance of your secret -."

"Don't you fuckin' apologise for me, Harris!" Faith shot him a glare before shooting Namor her most shit-eating smile. "What's with you anyhow? Couldn't you find anything else to wear other than seaweed speedos?"

"Do not think to pull the lion's tail wench!" Namor's eyes narrowed.

"Oh boy," Xander groaned. He couldn't see any way this was going to end well. "Faith-."

"And what's with the wings on the ankles shit anyway?" Faith was on a roll right about now. "Could you be any gayer?"

"Impudent brat!" Namor's face darkened as he caught Faith with a back-hander to the face that sent the brunette beauty cart-wheeling into a tree thirty feet away.

"You bastard!" All thoughts of appeasement fled at Namor's attack. Instead he lunged forward, catching the Sub-Mariner on the point of his jaw with a looping right that had all his power and weight behind it.

His blood froze when the water-dweller glared at him, his fist feeling as if he'd punched concrete and his blow looked like it had been as just as effective. Then Namor raced in, his hand grabbing Xander by the throat and flinging him half-way across the lake. Xander gasped as he splashed into the icy water and then Namor was beside him, Xander kicked up, catching Namor in the face to no visible effect, and then the Sub-Mariner had his hand around Xander's throat, pushing him back underwater.

Xander hit and punched at the super-hero's muscled arm, the blows bouncing off Namor's forearm. Blood roared in his ears as his nose and mouth filled with water, his throat burning as he struggled for air.

And then he was back on solid ground, gasping and wheezing for air as he crouched on his hands and knees, the monarch levitating in mid-air above him. "You knew you couldn't defeat me, and yet struck out to protect your friend," Namor smiled. "You know my power and yet do not flinch to challenge it. You are both loyal and honourable. If more surface-dwellers had your attributes I would not spend so much time fighting it. Because of your actions here, I will suffer you knowing my secrets, do not make me regret these choices."

Xander forced himself to look up as the king flew off. "I always preferred Aquaman," Xander muttered before clambering to his feet and limping over to Faith, the mansion emptying in the distance.

"Yeah," Faith groaned as she struggled to her feet. "I see why you like this world, the Marvel universe's real friendly." Faith groaned and fluttered her long eyelashes, dark eyes glazing over. "Don't mind me, but I think I'm gonna pass-."


	5. Chapter 5

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (5/?)**

"Hey Faith!"

Faith forced herself not to sigh as her apparently boundlessly enthusiastic bud raced out of his room to meet her as she stalked down the X-Mansion's tastefully-decorated corridor. "Xan?"

"How are you feeling?" her friend asked, eyes filled with compassion.

Faith smiled, whatever else Xan was, he always cared. "Slayer healin' you know?" Faith's eyes darkened as they zeroed in on Xander. "But Slayer healin' doesn't mean as much as it did in our world. Back there I was near top of the food chain, now I'm near the damn bottom."

"I won't let anyone hurt you."

"Yeah?" Faith snorted. "And who's gonna protect you?"

Faith winced inwardly at Xander's flinch. That had come out way harsher than she'd meant it. Even as she opened her mouth to try some sort of an apology, Xander continued on, his gaze now fixed squarely on the floor. "Anyhow, I've been playing around with the computer in my room, there's no Sunnydale in this reality."

"No Sunnydale?" Faith whistled. "No Hellmouth either?"

"Not sure," Xander admitted, "but it's a possibility I guess. I also tried to find us, we don't seem to exist. Or at least Faith Lehane, Slayer, and Xander Harris, Watcher, don't. We might have other jobs or lives, and stuff."

Faith felt the world rock around her. A world where she'd never existed, never felt pain, betrayal, or helplessness, but also where she'd never saved someone, been someone, had friends, been respected. "And we've both got pretty distinctive names ain't we Lavelle?"

Xander half-smiled at her gentler jibe. "Yeah, there's other stuff too." Xander hesitated. "The super-heroes don't seem quite the same here too." Faith rolled her eyes, colour her unsurprised. "The powers and identities seem the same, but they work in different teams, and certain things haven't happened here."

"Such as?" Faith queried, interested despite herself.

"Such as the Avengers never fell apart, Heroes For Hire is a lot bigger, Captain America has his own team based in the South, other stuff too. Stuff that's supposed to be getting up and running like The Avengers Initiative isn't in the pipeline"

"And you know this how?" Faith asked, her tone sceptical.

Xander shrugged. "Like I said, web site searching."

"So this shit that didn't happen," Faith's brow furrowed in thought, "is that because of us fuckin' with the timeline or somethin'?"

"Uh, good question." Xander blinked before shaking his head. "No, most of this stuff happened long before we got here. I think all we know about this world is slightly off like the comic writers almost but not quite know the characters here."

Faith shook her head. "This is some weird shit." Faith peered at her friend. "Heard anything about if we're gettin' home or if they've decided what they're gonna do with us?"

Xander shook his head. Faith sighed. "Figures."

* * *

Oxford

"This is the site of the St. Brice's Day massacre."

Inspector Lewis looked up at the powerfully-built costumed figure hovering above him, the awe he felt almost drowning him. "C…Captain Britain."

"Officer," the red, white, and blue super-hero nodded at him, "I don't suppose you know the story of the St. Brice's Day Massacre?"

"No I-." Lewis blinked as a years-old pub conversation with his former and very erudite boss flickered into his head. "Wait, yes I do. England had been under attack from Vikings for several years, so an enraged Ethelred the Unready ordered the massacre of Danes throughout England in 1001. This must be where the church stood that was burnt down by a mob after Danes took refuge in it."

"Yes," Lewis quaked inwardly when the masked man floated down to stand beside him, close enough to touch if only he dared to. "And now another atrocity has been enacted on this accursed ground." Captain Britain's gaze fell on him with all the weight of an anvil. "What can you tell me about the victim?"

"She was a Doctor. Rita Hansen, in her mid 40s, a G.P., well thought-of in the community," Lewis grimaced. "And it appears the murderer whoever it was, removed the victim's eyes while they were alive and then finally their heart."

"I doubt you've seen sicker cases, officer," Captain Britain commented. "Well keep up the good work."

"Thank you, sir." Lewis gathered his courage to continue. "And you too sir. And thank you."

The masked man smiled. "No thanks needed, serving is its own reward."

* * *

"Xander had a sprained wrist, a dislocated shoulder, and a bruised throat while Faith had two cracked ribs and a dislocated jaw." Xavier glared at an unimpressed-looking Namor. "Not only did you attack them against the wishes of all of us, you attacked them on my very land!"

"I will not attack them again," the Sub-Mariner grumpily conceded. "Xander has a loyalty and honesty that leads me to believe he will not betray us all." The king of Atlantis paused before continuing, his tone yet more grudging. "While Faith has a forthright manner and an intriguing spirit."

"Forthright manner? Intriguing spirit? For someone who doesn't like the surface-dwellers, he sure likes our women," Stark mused.

"Does he ever," muttered Mr. Fantastic.

"Do not to seek to mock me," Namor thundered as he glowered at the billionaire genius.

Strange groaned. These meetings were always so much fun. "Have you made any progress in transporting them home?" Stark queried.

Strange shook his head. "That is continuing to perplex me," he reluctantly admitted. "There's something about that dimension that means if I open a doorway to it, it could easily tear open a hole that we can't close, which would open both us and this other dimension to untold dangers."

"Why didn't it tear open the first time?" Richards queried.

"It's only a theory, but I believe the mysterious being that travelled with them took up so much magical energy that there was no excess left to backlash and tear through the dimensional wall," Strange replied.

"And this being?" Namor put in. "Have you any idea what it is?"

"No," Richards shook his head. "Given all the lab tests and magical exams we ran on Bulle Corne's corpse, we can only say with any certainty that whatever it was, it was incorporeal and very old. Unfortunately we have nothing to compare it with in this dimension."

"I trust you're questioning our guests as to what this mystery interloper could be?" Stark queried.

"Yes," Strange nodded. "There are a number of possible options, all of them potentially frightening. Their world was once run by a race of a pure-blood demons called the Old Ones, there's also various demon Overlords who rule differing realms of hell, the Senior Partners, a race of demons who currently influence their world through a law firm called Wolfram & Hart, a Fallen, one of the celestial horde of angels who rebelled against God, or most worryingly it could be a creature called the First Evil who they believe was the concept of evil created at the moment of the Big Bang."

"Have you any idea which one of these is the most likeliest of subjects?" Stark queried.

"I'm afraid not," Richards shook his head. "However Stephen and Charles are busy questioning Faith and Xander for all they know about these possible threats, so we can be best prepared to deal with them."

Charles put in. "They have expressed a yearning to be involved more in the action of our world." Charles clarified at the others' bemused looks. "They want to be involved in some sort of work helping people. In fact the 'Slayer Spirit' needs to be involved in aiding people, otherwise it'll eventually drive her insane." Charles paused. "They're not mutants so obviously I can't use them."

"They haven't the power to work on any of the Avenger teams," Stark put in, "besides, if we're trying to keep them low-key, the Avengers is too visible, the press will ask questions about why two rookies are on the premier teams, so America's Team is out as well."

Strange wrinkled his nose. "I'll take them for the Defenders." As much as he was loathe to admit, the newcomers intrigued him, they had many interesting stories to share, and both were engaging in their own way, Faith with her charisma and Xander with his affability. "Perhaps their experience of the supernatural will come in handy."

* * *

A Loft In Upscale Manhattan

Bullseye reached for the half-full glass on the table beside him. The moment his fingers wrapped around it, he twisted at his waist and flung it at the interloper he sensed stood behind him. His eyes widened in recognition a half-second before the glass hit its target then widened still further when the glass sailed through the target to shatter on the wall beyond.

"That's a real neat trick," he was pleased when his voice didn't shake in the slightest, "and I seem to remember shooting you a few years back, people don't tend to recover from that. Weren't you Murdock's squeeze?"

'Karen Page' smiled. "I thought taking this form would grab your attention, Lester."

Bullseye blinked at the use of his real name, he guessed that was intentional too. But then he figured everything his guest did was carefully thought out. "Well if you wanted it for a dance, I'm guessing we'd struggle if I can't touch you."

"A dangerous man like you," the spectre's smile widened, "I wouldn't want to be solid around you." Bullseye stared silently at the mystery interloper, sensing he was being mocked, but knowing it would be unwise to be provoked into rashness until he actually knew just how extensive his 'guest's' abilities were. "I want to hire you to kill a couple of people for me."

"Powerful being like you, why don't you do your own dirty work?"

The creature chuckled, politely amused by his challenge. "Let's just say I have other, weightier projects to deal with and leave it at that shall we? Are you interested?"

"I haven't got anything on at the moment," he evaded. "Depends on what you want doin'."

"What are you the best at," the deceased law receptionist replied, "kill two people. An Alexander Harris and Faith Lehane."

"What are the details?" Bullseye lounged in his seat, outwardly unconcerned but inwardly his heart was racing as he considered the excitement of another kill.

"There's a bookie in Hell's Kitchen by the name of Roger Franklin who's holding a key for you. Once you have the key, kill Franklin, and take the key to The Continental Bank at 300 Madison Avenue. It's a key for deposit box R12, in there are instructions and profiles of Harris and Lehane."

Bullseye raised an eyebrow. It was odd, but the instructions weren't the strangest he'd had. "Any particular way you want them killing? Look like an accident, painful?"

"No preference," the long-dead receptionist smiled, "only make it soon."


	6. Chapter 6

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (6/?)**

Faith sauntered into the brightly-lit gymnasium, eyebrow arched even as her lips pouted together in an admiring whistle. The under-ground gymnasium was the size of a football pitch and mirrored on each wall with the fifty or so machines inside it all specially configured to give the mansion very special inhabitants a thorough workout.

"Hey Faith," Xander wriggled out from under a bench machine to stand. The Sunnydaler was clad in black gym pants and a matching T-shirt both plastered with sweat, a grin slicing his face in two. "I took your advice!"

"Yeah," Faith smirked as she begun her stretching, "that'd be a first."

"I decided to 'embrace my inner hyena', and see just what I could to do with this new power," Xander explained.

"Yeah?" Faith finished her shoulder-stretches and moved into her arm-stretches. "How did that go?"

"Well I used to be able to bench two-fifty pounds, now I can bench four-sixty, I used to press one-eighty, now I can do three-thirty, and I used to squat three-eighty, now I can do six hundred."

"Yeah great," Faith feigned interest. Xander's numbers while impressive were nothing compared to the weights she could move. Unfortunately she'd also seen her lifts were in turn miniscule next to the weights she'd seen Colossus and Beast shift. More proof of just how far she'd fallen in this new world. Which when you hid your fears behind the blanket of your physical strength was a hell of a hit to take.

"Have you heard the decision's come down about whose team we join?"

Faith's eyes zeroed in on Xander. Now this was interesting. "Yeah?" Nervousness warred with eagerness, creating an interestingly churning pit within her belly. "Which team?"

"The Defenders," Xander's grin widened, his eyes shining with excitement. "I mean it's not the Avengers or anything. But they're this world's team supernatural experts. Just like we were in our dimension. This is the perfect fit."

"Jeez," Faith interrupted with a shake of the head, "end the geek-out already. Are you Xand or Andy?"

"Right, yeah," Faith kicked herself mentally when hurt filled Xander's eyes. Why did she have to keep puttin' her feet in with Xander? The guy was her best friend yet she just couldn't stop actin' like a bitch with him. "We should be professional, they're not comic book characters anymore, we need to be less awed by them."

"Nah," Faith tried desperately to save the moment for her friend, "I was just worried 'bout the spandex. I'd look the bomb in it, but you with that behind? Ain't seein' it."

"Yeah right." Xander smiled weakly. "Well anyhow I'm going to have a shower."

"Xand, don't-." Faith's voice trailed off when Xander hurried out. "Damn it."

"Guy's loyal to you, you might think about that when you're pushing him away, 'cause maybe one day he won't come back."

Faith shut up the voice in the back of her head telling her maybe Xander should stay away, that she didn't deserve a great guy like him, as she turned to face her remonstrator. Faith glared down at the short, thickset man with long sideburns and dangerous eyes, not at all intimidated by the mutant's gory reputation. "Listen Logan," she snarled, "I might not be the comic book geek Xan is, but I've read enough to know I'd be a real dumbass to listen to anything you said 'bout loyalty!"

Logan smiled, apparently unimpressed by her rage. "Maybe so Sweetcheeks, but you better listen to someone, otherwise you'll lose him."

A hollow formed in her belly as Wolverine stalked past her, the fear of losing her best friend biting deeper than any mere metal claw. No way was she losing her friend.

* * *

"May I come in?"

Xander almost flew off his bed at the knock on his door and Professor Xavier's cultured tones beyond it. "Sure," he croaked once the shock had slightly worn off. Damn it, Faith was right, he'd have to get used to meeting these people, no matter the awe encountering his heroes caused.

"Thank you," a second later and the door swung open and Professor Xavier wheeled himself in, a welcoming smile on his face. "I hope you're finding your accommodations to your liking?"

"Yeah," Xander shuffled from foot to foot as he glanced around the room. "It's fine, sir."

"Please," the wheelchair-bound man raised a hand, "Professor is fine. How are you adjusting to your new surroundings?"

Xander shrugged even as his cheeks reddened. "Everyone's," he grimaced as he remembered Namor, "well nearly everyone's been very kind."

Professor Xavier smiled. "That's not what I asked." Xander's gaze dropped to his feet. "You don't have to answer, but if you wish to talk…."

Xander risked a peek up from his shoes. "It's frightening, you know meeting your idols."

Xavier chuckled, however it wasn't a mocking sound, rather it was reassuring. "I imagine I'd be rather intimidated by a dinner party hosted by Freud, Jung, and Adler." Xander stared blankly at the bald-headed man who chuckled again before explaining. "They're all famous psychiatrists and psychologists. My 'idols' if you will." Xavier's expression sobered. "You don't have to fear us, Xander, all we want to do is help you. You've read your comics, you know our characters."

"Yeah," Xander's eyes narrowed, "but I've seen your mistakes too. Stark's drinking, Richards' impetuosity, your Xavier Protocols," Xavier grimaced, "Namor's temper, and Logan's past." Xander shook his head. "Faith can't fight you, she'll try, she'll try like no-one you've ever seen, but she can't. Even Glory was small potatoes next to you guys."

"We're good people, Xander," Xavier's smile was rather more strained, "but still people, and people make mistakes, both you and your companion aren't immune to this very human condition. You have to trust we have your best interests in mind."

"Yeah," Xander nodded uneasily.

"Now," Xavier's smile returned, "I assume you're excited about your new assignment in the Defenders?"

"Yeah," Xander half-smiled, "I think Faith's a little worried about maybe having to wear spandex though."

"HA!" Xavier threw back his head and laughed. "That's strange, your companion didn't strike me as the shy type."

* * *

Doctor Strange glanced around the lamp-lit room, noting the anticipation thick in the air. His team-mates were all around, awaiting the arrival of their debuting team-mates.

Valkyire, the blonde-haired Asgardian warrior. The tall woman was dressed in a chain-mailed mid-thigh length haubrek beneath a blue cape.

Hellcat, the masked occult detective. The short, slight red-head hid her features underneath a blue mask, but Strange could see the mischief gleaming in her eyes.

Moon Knight, Konshu's representative on this plane. The warrior was well-built and clad entirely in a grey outfit, a half-moon crescent on his broad chest, and his face concealed by a forbidding cowl.

Nighthawk, the alchemy-powered hero. The hero was tall and lean, clad in a blue outfit with a yellow emblem on his chest and body length red-wings on his back.

Ghost Rider, the leather-clad biker cursed by Mephisto and fighting the demonic influence to be one of this realm's champions.

"When are they getting here Doctor?"

Strange glanced towards the Moon Knight. "I'll have the spell ready in a moment."

"Do we really need new team members?" demanded Ghost Rider.

"Perhaps not," Strange used all his skills of diplomacy to conceal his irritation at the near continual questioning, "but Faith and Xander are newcomers here and have talents that could come in handy. Moreover they want to help."

"Damn amateurs."

Stranger ignored Moon Knight's grunt in favour of finishing the teleportation spell. A moment or later and the duo materialising before him. The Slayer was dressed in leather pants and a gym-vest with a pair of stake-filled bandoliers criss-crossing her torso only partially-concealed under her demin jacket, in addition to a crossbow fastened to her back. Her one-eyed companion stood protectively beside her, his jeans tucked into his construction boots and plaid shirt tucked into his pants, the leather jacket over the shirt almost certainly concealing some weapon or other.

"Xander, Faith," Strange stepped forward to greet the new-comers, noting the predatory challenge in Faith's eyes and the nervousness in Xander's solitary orb. "It's good to see you both. These are your new team-mates." Strange's eyes narrowed as he noted the Slayer pull back, a guarded look in her eyes, while Xander tentatively approached the others. Clearly the scars Xavier and Samson had concluded existed were deep and raw in the troubled brunette's psyche.

"Wow," he turned his attention back to the one-eyed man who was staring at the Valkyrie with the open-mouthed admiration that didn't bode well, "the Xena-look really works for you. I've been trying to get Faith to wear one of these on patrol, but would she listen?"

"No, 'cause I ain't cracked," the Slayer commented in muttered tones.

"Xena?" the towering Asgardian stared down at Xander, her eyes filling with bemusement.

"I'll have to lend you one of my box sets," the young man took on a stricken look. "Oh boy, I've lost them."

Faith shot him a desperate look. "Can we get moving before he loses it completely and starts bawling?"

"'Course," Xander continued on, unmindful of his companion's comments, "now I get the special editions of Babylon 5, so there's an upside to everything." Faith's face fell into her hands as she despairingly shook her head.

"Now," Strange clapped his hands together, drawing everyone's attention to him, "tonight we've located a warehouse of around forty vampires in one of the garment districts."

"Forty vampires?" Xander gasped. "Shouldn't there be more of us?" Xander raised a hand at the others' looks. "Sorry, instinctive reaction."

Strange shook his head and smiled before continuing. "Valkyrie, you and Johnny will come in through the front door. Marc, I want you on the roof to the left with Patsy and your rifle, and some of those handy shells you got off Blade. Nighthawk, you'll join me on the right side. Xander, you and Faith will be at the building's rear."

* * *

Faith crouched in the darkness, eyes burning through the shadows as she watched the warehouse's rear. This was just proof of how far she'd fallen, normally she'd be the one goin' in front and some rookie Slayers or Council special ops troops would be watchin' the back.

Faith swallowed her bitterness down deep as she continued staring at the darkness-shrouded warehouse. What she really needed was some action, she cracked her knuckles, something to beat her frustrations out.

"Huh," Faith's heart raced as the warehouse's rear door crashed open and deluge of vampires swarmed out, an unconscious smile tugged on her full lips. "Xan, you take the two the right, I'm on the three to the left."

The three vampires grinned as they saw her charging to meet her, something that changed when she leapt into the air twenty-five feet from them and sailed into the one to her right, both feet smashing into his face, shattering every bone as the demon crashed to the ground. Faith smirked as she hit her knees at the far side of the wailing vampire, drove one of her stakes into its heart, and jumped back to her feet. She might not be top of the mountain anymore, but she could still fight like a son of a bitch.

The other vampires reached her at the same time, Faith ducking under a right cross to grab the demon by the front of its black leather jacket and throw it into the other one as it tried to sneak behind her. Faith spun to face the two as they disentangled themselves from one another, kicking the nearest in the crotch, doubling it up and leaving it easy target for a stake to the back.

The third leapt at her through his companion's exploding dust, Faith countered with a hooked arm around its shoulder, twist at the waist, and judo throw to the ground, her stake coming down fast. Only not fast enough to avoid the demon rolling out of the way, back up to his feet, and leaping back at her.

This time Faith didn't try to finesse the attack, leaping to meet the vampire with a pair of rapid-fire knees to the chest followed by a left hook to the face, knocking the demon back the way it had come. Faith grinned as she landed on top of the stunned demon in a straddling position and rammed her stake home. "Easy as."

* * *

"Okay," Xander nodded at Faith's command. He was a half-second behind Faith, but not quite as far as behind her he would have been pre his re-possession. He charged to meet the two vampires, one a tall, thick-set black, the other a skinny, hook-nosed blonde.

He blocked a hook from the black on his left forearm while thrust-kicking the female vampire in the chest with his right foot. The blonde stumbled back as Xander turned back towards the black only just managing to pull his neck down in time to avoid a right cross to the face. Xander leapt into the bigger man's reach only to catch a left hook in the side of the head.

The punch staggered him off course, twisting at the waist to avoid a follow-up right to the belly, then drove a knee into the vampire's crotch. The vampire grunted then staggered backwards, Xander following in hot pursuit.

"Damn it!" Xander was forced to twist away from the stunned vampire when the blonde charged in, catching her with a straight right to the face while sneaking a stake under the other arm and into the demon's chest.

"Bastard!" The other vampire leapt onto him, Xander grunting as he hit the ground, the air gusting out of him as he rolled away from the demon's kicks and back to his feet in time to snake under a right and lunge into the demon only to catch a uppercut that knocked him back a step.

The vampire grinned and lunged at him only to explode into dust when he sidestepped and left the stake for the demon to run onto.

* * *

Strange smiled as he ended the remote viewing spell that he'd had watching Xander and Faith. "Yes," he nodded approvingly, "I think they'll do."


	7. Chapter 7

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (7/?)**

177A Bleecker Street, New York City

"Thank you for all joining me here," Strange began, his oddly reassuring gaze passing over them all. "It's come to my attention that Frank Drake has been captured by The Cult Of Sangre."

Faith leaned over to Xander as a mutter ran through their group. "Frank Drake?"

Xander half-looked away from Strange and to her. "An occult detective who also happens to be the human descendant of Dracula."

Faith raised an eyebrow. Human descendants of the most notorious vampire ever? That was a new one on her. She looked towards Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme began talking about the information that Drake had that they couldn't afford to fall into vampiric hands. "Why haven't they just turned him?"

The magician looked towards her. "I beg your pardon?"

"Why haven't they just turned him?" Faith repeated. "Surely that's the simplest way of getting his information out of him?"

"It would be," Strange smiled, "except Drake and his companions asked me to cast a spell whereby should they become possessed or enchanted, any of their 'dangerous' or 'specialist' knowledge would be lost." The magician paused. "Any of their knowledge has to be freely given."

"Or tortured out of the poor bastard," Faith pointed out.

Strange's face fell. "Quite," the magician nodded, "the spell's fatal flaw if you will." Strange looked around the group. "We'll be going to Boston," Faith's stomach somersaulted, of all the places she'd been to since escaping prison, Boston was the one she'd always avoided, "and making a rescue attempt tonight."

* * *

Boston, MA

Faith watched from the shadows as Ghost Rider and Valkyrie stalked out of the shadows to grab the two sentries outside of the sprawling four-storey, colonial style mansion, tearing their dark red robes from the vampires before staking them. "For the record," Faith grumbled as she pulled the robe over her head. "This plan blows."

"If they hear us coming, they might well move Drake to another place while we fight our way through to them," Strange re-explained. "If you secure Drake for us, then wait for us to come for you, it'll be safer, you can guard him until we get in, and we can hold the majority of them off you."

"And won't they sense we're not vampires?" Faith continued with the scepticism. Hey, if you find something that works for you, Faith was of the opinion you should milk the hell out of it. For her, it was the three 'S's, sexiness, sassiness, and scepticism.

"My cloaking spell will make them think you're 'like them'," Strange explained.

"Oh getting' up close and personal with a bunch of vamps," Faith shuddered. "Who do ya think I am, B?" Seeing the others' blank looks, she shrugged. "Never mind, let's hustle."

There was that at least, Faith comforted herself as she and Xander started towards the darkened house. At least in this dimension, she wasn't the failure, the bad seed, the mad dog, that every one looked down on either with pity, fear, or hatred

Faith steeled herself as she entered the mansion's hallway, expecting a whole bunch of vampires to come down on her sweet lil ass. Instead they strode through the entrance hall, into the kitchen, Faith steeling herself not to help the weeping girl being passed around by the five laughing vampires there, knowing her companions would save her as soon as they got the signal Drake was free.

Faith came to a halt when she realised that Xander was shooting the weeping girl one of his 'business is about to pick up' looks. "Hey man," one of the vampires grinned at them, his stubbly face leering at her from under his hood, "the girl's for play, not food." The vampire threw back his head and laughed. "Not yet anyway!"

"Yeah," Faith grabbed Xan's elbow and started leading her friend towards the back of the mansion, "we'll look forward to that. But we've gotta job to do." Her fingers dug into Xander's elbow. "Remember?"

Xander winced as he dragged his eyes from the victim and to her. "Yeah, I remember. Come on."

Faith allowed Xander to lead her through the kitchen and into the darkened rear room. Seeing her companion's eyes harden and mouth open, she shook her head warningly, pulling hard one of her ear lobes to emphasis the vampires' superior hearing. Xander nodded reluctantly before heading down the darkened stairwell.

"Hey," Faith sauntered into the basement, experienced eyes taking in the circumstances immediately. The man she assumed was Drake was manacled to the far wall, blood trickling down from his mouth, eyes swollen and glazed with pain, and a combination of welts and bruises adorning the man's otherwise naked torso. To his right stood one vamp with a cattle-prod and to his right, another wearing brass-knuckles, by the stair well, with his back to them stood a third.

Even as Faith took this all in, Xander stepped forward, the sword pulled out of the robes sliding up and through the back of the demon's neck. "I'll guard the stairwell, you deal with the other two."

"Five by five!" Faith leapt forward, sidestepping the cattle-prod as she butted the other vampire in the mouth, grabbed the demon's wrist, holding its knuckle-duster still, and rammed a stake into its chest. Even as the vampire burst into dust, she was wriggling away from another attempted electrifying before kicking up and into the vampire's arm. The demon cursed as it dropped its weapon, Faith swooped in as the vampire glanced down at its falling cattle-prod, and staked the demon. Faith glanced towards Xander and grinned, the sounds of the fighting in the floors above them filtering down. As missions went, you didn't get any milk-walk than this.

* * *

South Boston, Later that night.

Faith stared around the depressingly-familiar rundown neighbourhood that she'd grown up in. All around where the places she'd remembered, the parlour where she'd gotten her tat done, the amusement arcade she'd spent any cash she'd managed to steal from her mom, the school she'd occasionally attended, and even the bars she'd far more often frequented.

And just up the road was the tenement building she'd been dragged out of for the last time when she was twelve after one too many visits to the ER.

"Why are we here?"

Faith glanced at her companion. She'd figured on sneakin' down here on her own, but Xan had followed her, just like the smelly but sorta cutely faithful mutt he was. "You know how you said we don't exist in this dimension?"

"Well, more exactly I said I couldn't find us," Xander corrected. "And we're certainly not who we were back in our dimension. I guess with all these far stronger heroes there's no actual need-." Xander clamped his jaw shut at her glare.

"But our families might live where they did?" Faith queried.

"Maybe," Xander shrugged, "but I had nowhere to even start with mine, what with Sunnydale being non-exist-." Xander's eye narrowed as he looked at her. "You think your mom-." Xander paused then looked in the direction she was looking. "If you want to I'll come with you to see her."

"Nah," Faith shook her head, "fuck it. She had twelve years to try and be a decent mom, she failed. I ain't got nothin' to say to her."

"You got a second chance, maybe she should get one too."

"What?" Faith spun to face her companion, eyes flashing. "I know you ain't comparin' me fuckin' up once to that bitch lettin' down her kid for twelve fuckin' years!"

Xander met her gaze. "I don't give a shit about her, it's you I care about. Maybe seeing her will help you heal -."

"Whatever," Faith was surprised when it was her rather than Xander who looked away. It always knocked her off balance when Xan talked about caring, like she didn't have the tools to know what to do 'bout it. "This was a mistake." Faith looked around. "Look," she pointed to the left, "I know a grunge club down there that's wicked. We gotta few hours 'til we gotta be outta here. Come on!"

"A grunge club," Xander sobbed brokenly. "Where's an apocalypse when I need one?"

Xander's mournful plea tugged a smile from her. "Ah, come on ya piker."

* * *

SHIELD Heli-Carrier Over The Pacific Ocean

Fury looked around his coldly official boardroom, all gleaming metal and efficient function. It was one of those all so exciting weekly briefings that always brightened his day. "Okay," he growled. "What's the first item on the agenda?"

It was Contessa de Fontaine, an immaculately put-together Italian beauty who's fashion model appearance belied her effective reputation, who spoke first. "SHIELD agents managed to intercept a dealer attempting to sell weapons-quality nuclear material to the North Koreans on Saturday." The Italian aristocrat hesitated before continuing. "The Mandarin appears to have disappeared off the grid."

"Disappeared off the grid?" Fury growled. The Mandarin was one of Asia's foremost crime lords, a man who routinely toppled nations on that continent, and frequently caused chaos on a world-wide basis. Fury liked to keep a tab on him at all times. "That's a little vague. When did we last have him and where?"

The Contessa's high cheeks coloured at his rebuke, but her answering tone was unfazed. "It was in the Chechen Khan Province of Outer Mongolia on Tuesday afternoon. He was meeting with a local bandit leader for reasons as yet unspecified. Wednesday morning he was gone."

"Reasons as yet unspecified?" Fury shook his head. That wouldn't do at all. "Pick up the bandit leader and shake him down. Back-track the Mandarin has far as we can, I want to know what he was plotting, who he was working with, and where he's gone."

"Yes sir," Contessa nodded as her fingers tapped at her palm-pilot.

"Next," Fury growled.

"Sin and her gang were picked up during a Berlin robbery on Sunday." G.W. Bridge growled, pride briefly swelling the black man's thick chest even as he ran a hand through his whitened hair. "But our surveillance team lost Baron Mordo in Düsseldorf," the African-American glanced at the Contessa, "on Tuesday night."

Fury's eyes narrowed. Two super-villains disappearing on the same day was a pattern, and he didn't like patterns, particularly ones like that. "Find him," Maria Hill, his deputy director interrupted for him, "next."

"Our agents got wind of an illicit cargo being delivered on Howland Hook Marine Terminal," Dugan reported, the thick-set world war II veteran's red moustache bristling with pride. "Bio-weapons."

"What were these bio-weapons?" Fury queried.

"Drugs that briefly accelerated the body's production of adrenaline by between 400 – 600 percent, temporarily creating a super-being," Dugan explained.

Fury raised an eyebrow. That was a new one on him. "Who were they were destined for?"

Dugan's face fell. "We're not sure. Obviously it's one of the big-wigs, the Kingpin, Hammerhead, the Hood, or the Owl, but we're not sure which." Dugan shrugged his broad shoulders. "We thought it wise to get them off the street rather than risk their buyer supplying his gang with them. We got the chemist though, apparently he has no idea who he was making the drugs for, only that he was being paid an eight figure sum to develop the drugs."

"Make tracking down this chemist's benefactor a priority for our East Coast division," Fury instructed. "It's unlikely this gentleman put all his eggs in one basket."

"I've already started an inspection of the bank accounts of the nation's various chemist prodigies for suspicious activity," Dugan replied.

Fury nodded. "Next."

"SHIELD agents picked up Al-Qaeda's number three man in Afghanistan on Monday," Clay Quartermain reported. "Another team prevented a bombing in Seville by ETA on Wednesday."

"Good work," Fury nodded brusquely.

"There's something else," Quatermain put in. "In the past fortnight, over two dozen people known for their good works have been murdered in sacrificial manner, their eyes and heart removed. There's not been more than two of these murders in any country, but-."

"Oh come on," Hill shook her, a sceptical sneer on her otherwise pretty face. "This is just some mass hysteria cult. This should be left to the local police forces and Interpol, we have super-villains, rogue states, and terrorist organisations to deal with!"

"No," Fury shook his head, interrupting Hill's tirade. "I don't like patterns. I want a full report on each and everyone of the murders, with any additional incidents."

* * *

Jamestown, Virginia

"I got ya covered Harris!" Faith roared as they burst out of the darkness, the cowled cultists spinning away from their spread-eagled victim to confront them.

Faith had the briefest glance of a red, horned face and flashing fangs as one of the cultists lunged at her, then she was ducking under a claw-swing and kicking it in the mid-section then grabbing it in a front face-lock and twisting. The creature's neck snapped as she leapt into the air and thrust-kick another demon in the face, knocking it on its ass.

Faith released her grip on the demon's throat in time to grab the handle of a descending hatchet, reverse its swing and bury it in the attacker's face. Blood gushed out of the demon's wound as it fell away even as Faith ducked under a back-handed hatchet swing and swung her hastily-drawn short sword up in a diagonal swing that the demon jumped out of the way of.

Only to get caught in a shotgun blast from the Ghost Rider that turned him into screaming ash. Faith glanced around in time to see Xander football-tackle a demon stood over the would-be sacrifice victim, knocking away the candle he was attempting to light some yellowed parchments with.

Faith started forward to help her bud, only to stop dead when he grabbed the demon under the jaw and by the side of the head, and twisted. A crack rang out, the demon's back arching as it slumped lifelessly to the ground. And just like that it was over, the Defenders having totally wiped out the cultists.

"Here miss," Faith watched as Xander began unfastening the weeping woman who'd almost been sacrificed, pulling his jacket off and putting it over her. Faith shook her head, strangely jealous of her friend's ability to empathise with strangers. Whenever she tried it came off forced. "I know you've had a fright, but you're safe now."

"This is a strange place for a sacrifice," Strange commented as he scooped up the parchments that the cultist had been attempting to burn.

"Strange?" Faith's brow furrowed, as far as she was concerned anywhere was a strange place to carve another human being up. "Strange how," Faith snorted, "Strange?"

Strange glanced towards her, his eyes troubled. "In 1622, Powhatan Indians slaughtered settlers here. It's a place with a bad history." Strange shoved the papers into an inner pocket. "I'll investigate these papers, try and find out what they were planning."


	8. Chapter 8

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (8/?)**

"Come on, Xan. We're goin' out." Xander opened the door at Faith's knock, then stopped, jaw dropping open. His friend glared at him. "What you starin' at?"

Finally he found his voice. "You have legs."

Faith's irritation turned to bemusement. "'Course I have legs, how do you think I get around, on stumps?"

"Yeah, but usually you're wearing pants, not a dress with lots of legs," Xander babbled. Legs that went on forever.

Faith's high cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "I thought it looked good."

"Oh it does," Xander hastily reassured his combustible friend. Faith was dressed in a backless to the waist sparkly sequined, black dress with straps on the shoulders that thickened as they ran down to join in a 'V' just under her cleavage, leaving the side of her boobs on display. The skin-tight dress ended just under the curve of her ass and displayed several miles of the smoothest, shapeliest legs that he'd ever seen. "You look," Xander blinked as he noticed something else, "is that a purse?"

Faith glared down at the slim-line purse in her right hand and then up at him. "Do you see any pockets on this dress? I need something to put my stake and make-up in," she grated. "Is that a problem for you?"

"Oh no," Xander shook his head. "Nothing about this dress is a problem for me."

Faith stared at him for a second then beamed. "Wicked." Faith grabbed his hand. " Come on."

"Where are we going?" Xander queried as Faith pulled him out of the room and into the corridor of the apartment they'd been put up in.

"I told you out, I've got a wicked dress, there's gotta be a cool club I can dance in around here!"

Xander bit back a groan. He remembered Faith's dancing from The Bronze. Looked like he was playing the part of a pole tonight.

Wait, what was he groaning about again?

* * *

Strobe lighting of half a dozen colours flashed around the club as techno-pop thundered out of the club's state-of-the art lighting. Xander's newly enhanced senses allowed him to smell all the sweat, booze, and smoke in the cramped club, but he barely noted that next to the gyrating beauty grinding against him. Suddenly Faith's arms were wrapped around his neck, mischief sparkling in her deep eyes, man he'd never realised how deep they were, as she ground her chest against his chest and her pelvis against his leg as she straddled it. Not that it wasn't nice, but it was also kinda difficult to control his body's reaction to.

His eye widened as he spotted and recognised a man lunging out of the wildly-dancing mob at his companion's back, a knife swinging up at her kidneys. Faith grunted as he grabbed her around the waist and flung them both to his left.

Faith's eyes widened in shock as they fell, her face contorting with fury as she twisted her body so that rather than land on their sides, the brunette was firmly on top. Even as her full lips opened in a doubtlessly scathing remark, Faith's head snapped to her right as the Slayer instinct kicked in and she snapped out a long leg in a sweep.

Their assailant leapt over the kick, tugging his legs up into his chest as he cleared Faith's leg and launched a kick that the Slayer leaned away from before leaping up, yanking him up by the shoulder even as she leaned away from an attempted knife thrust by their assailant.

The man's eyes widened when Faith leapt up into a spin-kick that knocked the knife out of his hand and to the ground. Faith landed in a crouch then cursed as a heel snapped pitching her off balance.

The assassin grinned, lunging forward with another knife only to be forced to twist to the left, blade slicing to his right when a tank-sized bouncer blundered out of the panicking crowd to attempt a grab. Blood spurted out of the man's throat as he fell back into the melee, the shrieks around them growing ever louder.

The assassin turned back in time to catch Xander's left square in the face and just manage to duck under the Slayer's spin-kick. The killer grunted something before leaping into a backwards somersault that sent him into the fleeing crowd.

Xander grabbed Faith's arm as she started after their attacker. "Wait!" he yelled as the Slayer glared over her shoulder at him. "Didn't you recognise him? That's Bullseye!"

"I don't care if he's the whole fuckin' dartboard, no-one tries and kills me!"

Xander shook his head as Faith wriggled free of his grip and started through the crowd. "Slayers," he muttered as he chased after her. "Ten years, and I haven't found one who listens!"

* * *

Faith's lips parted in a snarl as she heedlessly flung club-goers left and right as she raced after 'Bullseye'. Suddenly the assassin scooped a beer bottle off a table, spun to face her, and flung the bottle at her, Faith leaning away from the thrown projectile as she continued in her dogged pursuit.

One lousy night off in the weird, fucked-up reality. Oh no she couldn't have one lousy night off, some psycho hired killer had to spoil that. Faith snarled again, well she was gonna find out who hired this bastard and make them pay for ruining her night.

Faith burst out onto the pavement. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the assassin leaping into a sleek-lined, soft-topped sports car. "Hey!" Faith let out a snarl as she back-handed a towering bouncer out of her way. The wind whistled in her ears and tugged on her mane as she leapt into the air and landed on top of the roof as it screeched away from the sidewalk.

"Oh fuck!" Faith grunted as she landed on the roof, hands gripping at the rims. Her hair pulled back as the car speeded away. Faith shook her head in disgust as the car screeched away from the kerb and into the path of on-rushing traffic, horns blaring as cars swerved away from them. "Oh shit!" she moaned. "Why didn't Xander tell me not to do this???"

"Fuck!" Faith screamed as the car spun around a corner and into a darkened alley, the trash cans at its crowded mouth flying into the air as the car crashed into them. "Oh shit!" Faith squealed as the car scraped along the left wall's yellow bricks, car juddering and sparks flying with the impact. Faith rolled to the right, holding onto the roof there when Bullseye started shooting through the roof. "Fuck this!" Faith flung herself off the car, grunting as she splashed down in one of the alley's dirty puddles, and rolled up to her feet. "This was not-," her voice trailed off as the car slowed then reversed, speeding right at her, "oh fuck!" Faith's heart pounded as she kicked her shoes off, bent her knees, and powered up into a backwards leap, hands reaching up to grab the lower rungs of the fire escape above and swing and leap from there onto the fourth floor fire escape opposite. "Shit!" Faith squealed as she landed on her side and almost bounced off the unyielding iron fire escape. Faith groaned as she peered over the edge to see her assailant speeding away. "On balance I've had better nights out."

* * *

"So Strange thinks to investigate me?" he glared as the oblivious sorcerer sat over his lamp-lit desk, pen scratching at his notebook as he made notes, gaze flitting from the ritual to his notebook and back again. "I'll have to do something about this."

* * *

Odin watched balefully as the Frost Giants advanced upon Asgard, the ground shaking under the hordes' march. His Asgard, but these hulking primitive-looking monsters thought to attack it. Odin looked around, all of Asgard's champions bar one were here. It was just a shame that the bar one was the greatest of their number, his own son, Thor.

"We are enough," he growled as he raised Gungnir in his left hand and Thrudstok in his right. "We have to be enough." He looked around. "Tyr, Tiwaz you have my flanks. Heimdall you have my rear. Vidar, Hermod, you know your positions, the rest of you hold the line!" Odin threw his head back and let out a bellow. "Soak Asgard in Frost-Giant blood!"

The Frost-Giants hit their front line like a murderous avalanche, but his Asgardians were made of stern stuff and held. Odin let out a raucous whoop of joy as he thrust Gungnir down, his trident piercing the nearest Frost-Giant's foot. The beast roared in agony as it doubled up into a back-handed swing from Thrudstok. The monster's jaw shattered as his mace crashed into it, blood flying out of its mouth.

Odin dragged his trident out of the beast's foot, took a buffeting overhand right on the forehead, and thrust his weapon deep into the creature's lower torso with enough force to lift it from its feet and fling its bleeding carcass into the seething, hateful mob behind. Another roared into its place only for it to suffer its predecessor's fate when he caught it with an upwards-swinging mace that thudded into its jaw and sent it thudding to the ground.

But still another took its place, its fists snapping his head back and bloodying his mouth before he had chance to retaliate with a trident-thrust through its meaty left thigh and a back-handed swing to the side of its head. Odin blinked, surprised when the creature stumbled back a step, his left cheek utterly shattered and blood seeping down his neck and shoulder, but then lunged back at him.

Odin growled as the beast cannoned a right off his forehead, knocking him back a step as the battle's fury roared in his ears. Odin ducked a follow-up left and then Tyr was swinging his axe into the Frost-Giant's side. Blood spurted out of the demon's wound, its pained bellow cut off when Thrudstok crashed into its right cheek, snapping its head around and snapping its neck.

Another Frost-Giant made to grab him around the throat only for Odin to swing Trudstok down onto the grasping hand, his mace shattering the hand as he thrust his trident up at the creature's face only for it to slap its attack away. Odin grunted as it punched him in his good eye, blood bursting from above and the side. "For Asgard!" He bellowed as he swung his mace up and into his adversary's face, blood spraying out of its mouth to soak his beard. The demon stumbled and before it could regain his balance, Odin thrust forward with his trident, all three prongs impaling its face. Odin laughed as he felt the tide of the battle change.

Ragnarok would be averted for another day.

* * *

San Francisco, CA

"Ohhhhhh!" She-Hulk let out a scream as her assailant flung her into the night sky, the wind whistling through her hair. She-Hulk gasped as she crashed into the beach, back arching as she cast a disbelieving look at the horde assailing the Californian

Each of the monsters had a dragon-like head, their green-scaled head dominated by a six foot tall curved horn between malevolently glittering yellow eyes. Their snouts ended in a spear-point toothed mouth capable of swallowing a van whole. Of even more concern were the half-a-dozen thirty foot long clawed tentacles snapping dangerously either side of their heads.

She-Hulk pursed her lips as she watched Hercules grab one of the beasts by its lower jaw, tear it out of its water and flung it far out into the ocean. Meanwhile War Machine flew above the horde, firing his energy weapons into the screaming monsters, while Wonder Man had the tentacles of one of the beasts wrapped around his torso as he thudded blow after blow into the creature's snout. Meanwhile Tigra and Spider-Woman defended the coastline, making sure that none of the creatures attacked the city. This battle would be containable, winnable even, if there were just a dozen of these gargantuan monsters, but there were over fifty. If they didn't get some reinforcements soon, this battle would end very badly indeed.

"Oh no," She-Hulk groaned as she leapt to her feet to see worrying ripples in the water to the deluge of monsters' left and right, "not more of them."

"IMPERIUS REX!"

"Oh thank god," She-Hulk blinked as the Atlantis monarch and hordes of his warriors burst out of the water, "at least I hope so." Quelling the niggling worry that the Sub-Mariner might be here to aid the Water-Dragons rather than them, She-Hulk let out a roar. "Tigra! Spider-Woman! Change of plan, we're going all out to destroy these things! Come on!"

She-Hulk powered up through her thighs, leaping up into the air and at the advancing monsters. She grunted as she slapped away a swinging tentacle and then caught the nearest monster with a downwards swinging right to the top of its snout. The creature caught her with a tentacle to the back of the neck as it splashed into the water, sending her plummeting to the water beside it.

The monster roared out of the water, its maws shooting open as it lunged at her. She-Hulk leapt to meet it, spreading her arms to catch and hold the jaws apart, and then twist, the monster's neck snapping with a resounding crack. The monster hit the water, a tidal wave-like splash crashing over her. All around the battle was turning against the monsters, the water turning red with their blood, and the last of them dipped under the water. She-Hulk gasped and wiped her forehead with the back of her forearm.

"This is worrying."

She-Hulk stared warily at Namor. She wasn't a woman who feared anyone, but it didn't do to anger a notoriously arrogant and powerful ruler as the Sub-Mariner, especially one with such a virulent dislike for their race as he had. "What's worrying, we defeated them?"

Namor shot her a scornful look, but his tone was more concerned than haughty. "I recognise these beasts as creatures of legends, we called them Water Dragons. They were a powerful and formidable enemy to Atlantis that were only banished by the combined efforts of all our High Mages some eighteen thousand years ago."

"So why and how are they back?" Wonder Man asked as he landed.

Namor nodded. "That is why I am concerned. If they are returned, what other monsters of the past have also returned to plague us?"


	9. Chapter 9

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (9/?)**

"Oh wow." Xander stared open-mouthed at his friend as she charged into their apartment, a remarkably similar reaction to earlier in the evening but for radically different reasons.

Where before the sultry Slayer had looked devastatingly beautiful, now she looked a mess. Her once glossy mane was now bedraggled and stuck to the side of her face and her stiletto heels were nowhere to be seen. Muddy water stuck the dress to Faith's left side, and there were rips all the way up the right side and through the right strap, forcing the Slayer to hold the dress up.

"Not a word!" Faith warned with a point of an angry finger. "Eighteen blocks, Harris! Where were you!"

"Hey!" Xander snapped. "How was I supposed to know where you'd gone! I told you not to chase after -."

"Whatever!" Faith threw her hands up as she stormed past him then grabbed at her dress before it fell off. "You better have not used up the hot water, I need a shower!"

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Xander muttered as Faith's door slammed shut behind her.

* * *

Dartmoor, England

Captain Britain scowled as he and his team strode through the gloomy wood, mud squelching underfoot and the entire forest shrouded in shadows, whistling winds bending even the thickest oaks to their whim. The ground underfoot trembled and shook as their adversaries approached.

Britain stopped at the top of the hill and glanced at his team-mates, Britain's super-powered defenders one and all. "We'll make the stand here. We have to stop them crossing the wood and making it to the main road."

"As good a place as any," muttered the costumed Union Jack, his colourful costume seemingly oddly-muted in the stormy woods.

The rumbling in the air and the reverberating through the ground as their enemy came into view, a horde of horse-riding warriors charging straight towards them. Most of them were skeletal soldiers from a variety of ages and cultures – animal-hide clad picts, bearded Vikings, armoured knights, sun-kissed crusaders, Normans, Saxons, Romans, and others he didn't recognise. However his attention was taken by the army's leader.

The creature stood a towering eight feet tall, its massively muscled physique covered by chain mail rather than skin, however its head was the strangest part of all. The beast had a stag's head complete with sky-piercing antlers, a mouth filled with shark-like teeth, and knife-sharp red eyes. "The Wild Hunt," he whispered.

The Wild Hunt were a myth made flesh. Herne had collected all the warriors who'd died in Britain after breaking their oath from the beginning of time until around 12th century, at which time the age of magic had been largely replaced by the age of science. His motivation was unknown, but it was rumoured that when they rode again they'd obliterate all before them.

And now the thousands strong Wild Hunt rode towards Britain's towns and cities, with only his ten heroes to stop them.

Captain Britain gritted his teeth. No matter the odds, they'd defend the innocents.

He looked towards his companions. "I'll take Herne, the rest of you take care of the others-."

"No problem," MicroMax shot up to eighteen feet tall and began tearing centuries-old trees out of the ground, "I've got my ammo right here."

* * *

The Northwest Territories, Canada

Northstar gazed around the town, sadness filling him. Alton Kikino had never been a big or even prosperous town. At its height the town had only had a population of just over three thousand, and that had plummeted once the local mine had run dry. Buffeted by wild winds on either side and host to an inhospitable terrain, its generations of inhabitants had grown hardened to the elements.

But now it was a graveyard. Buildings that had stood firm against the elements were flattened, their debris lying on the blood-stained snow. All around were the mutilated corpses of the town's citizens, great paws having torn them limb from limb. The only people who now walked through the devastated town were him and his team-mates, the occasional foot on glass the only thing that broke the eerie quiet.

"Jean-Paul! Over here!"

Northstar turned and flew to his left, landing beside his sister who was crouched by a huge, deep footprint of a four-toed creature. "Judging by the size of this footprint, the creature would stand between eight and ten feet tall and weigh around nine-hundred pounds."

"There's footprints all over town," Guardian commented as he walked up to them, "I'd estimate twelve to fifteen of the creatures attacked the town at once, encircling it before moving in, probably just after dawn as people were wakening."

Shaman strode up to them, the Native American's face grim. "The creatures are Squashtachs. What I don't understand what would motivate such a normally solitary and shy creature to launch an organised and unprovoked attack?"

You're the magician, Michael," Snowbird commented, her own masked features grave. "You better than all of us should sense the portents and know what they mean. Something very bad is coming."

"Spare me the mystical bullshit," Puck spat on the ground, the muscles bristling on the powerfully-built midget's frame. "What we gotta talk about is how we do our duty."

"Our duty?" Northstar queried.

"Well first," Puck looked up at him, "we hunt down this pack of Squashtachs and end them, then if Snowy's right, we gotta work out how to protect Canada from any more attacks."

* * *

The Ukraine

"Ahhhh!" The Black Widow let out a pained cry as the three-headed dragon threw her from its back. Hitting the ground on her shoulders, she fell into a tumbler's roll and away from the fire that spurted from the middle of its three heads. Her automatics came up and fired round after round into the demon as it snarled and growled.

All around was chaos, the small village under attack from a pack of Slavic Dragons that had left it a blasted waste-ground, her team-mates in the Winter Guard struggling to contain these winged monsters, but they had to contain them. The Black Widow dived to the left as fire exploded towards her, but then Crimson Dynamo was between her and her attacker, the hero's armour protecting him from the flames. Dynamo fired back with his energy weapons, his own weapons incinerating the roaring reptile.

* * *

Doctor Strange's brow furrowed as he struggled to decipher the hieroglyphics before him. In his decades spent studying magic he'd come across and learnt many arcane languages no longer spoken, amongst them Hittie, Assyrian, Mayan, Vedic, and Incan. This language was new to him, but he guessed it was one of the demonic one. However there were some patterns that occurred more than most, leading him to believe that he could translate it.

Making sense of it was an even more problematic matter. He'd made some progress, but he'd been working on the enchantment for the past two nights, and he'd got an ominous inkling of what the spell was intended to do. He only hoped with all his heart he was wrong.

"How does it feel to be the Sorcerer Supreme, to save everybody but your own brother? Does it make you feel special?"

Strange blinked at the angry voice, staring at the very familiar figure before him. With all the mystical shields on this place, it should be impossible, and yet his deceased brother stood before him, a bitter scowl on his face. His eyes fixed on the stranger, he rose to face him. "Victor?"

He had barely breathed his brother's name but the spectre heard it and nodded. "Yes it is," the ghost spoke, "tell me, all the lives you've saved, does it make a difference, does it alleviate the high-handed way you treated our parents and I? Do you really think your current altruism makes up for your past selfishness to those who should have been closest to you? Do you?"

Strange ignored the deep pain the spirit's taunting caused him, allowing it to rant on as he spread out his magical senses to investigate the mystery before him. Then something indefinable brushed up against the edges of his mind.

His eyes widened as something battered through his psychic defences, exploding inside his skull like a baseball bat to the head. "No," he gasped as blood burst from his ears, streaming down the sides of his neck, his vision blurring. "Blackheart-."

Then something else, something familiar attacked magically, sending him reeling. "Mordo." His teeth rattled with the force of his nemesis' attack. The blood roared in his ears as he countered with an attack on the astral plane.

And then someone else, someone lacking Mordo's finesse but powerful in their own right, attacked. "Doom," he gasped as the magical attack crashed over him, flesh goosing as he staggered, bile rising in his throat as he gagged and wheezed, slumping back into his chair. His back arched as yet another attacker joined the others, this one a distinctly Asgardian magic.

Sweat streamed down him as he stared at the smirking spectre before him. "You're not-," he launched a retaliatory attack, forcing the attackers back, "my brother!"

"No why would your brother return to see such a disloyal sibling?" the ghost taunted.

Blackness beckoned as the three mages attacked again. He gritted his teeth as he countered again, then the darkness washed over him, and he pitched face-first onto the floor.

* * *

Wong carried the steaming teapot to his friend and employer's study, the tray rattling as he made his way upstairs. Stephen always liked his herbal tea to help him focus during his late night sessions.

Wong walked down the dimly-lit corridor that led to the walnut-coloured door of Strange's study. After knocking on the door, he shouldered it open and strode in. The tray fell from his suddenly clumsy hands and his heart stopped together with his feet as his eyes fell on his friend's crumpled body. "Stephen!"

* * *

Xavier sighed as he pulled away from his friend's comatose body. "Anything?"

Xavier looked towards Richards and shook his head. "He's in there, I can sense him, but I can't awaken him."

"Does there appear to be damage?" Richards asked anxiously.

"Impossible to tell," Xavier gravely replied before directing his gaze towards the cluttered desk. "Have you made any sense of that?"

Richards grimaced. "Yes unfortunately."

"Unfortunately?" queried Xavier with a raised eyebrow.

"It appears that Xander and Faith aren't the innocents we believed," Richards commented. "According to Strange's scribblings, they are linked in to the rash of ritual killings we've noticed over the past few weeks."

"Oh really?" Xavier blinked. It was unusual but not unheard for somebody to fool his psychic abilities, but to fool both him and Strange's scrying, that was something else entirely. "They'll have to track them down."

Richards nodded. "I'll call Fury."


	10. Chapter 10

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (10/?)**

Fury bit down into the cigar in his mouth as he peered at the figures before him. "Are these reports correct?"

Hill nodded. "Yes sir, it appears each of the murders takes place at the site of a historical atrocity or massacre."

All those murders you thought so unimportant just a few days ago, Fury silently thought. But it wasn't in his nature to needlessly point-score unless it served a secondary purpose. "And what about the increased number of supernatural attacks?"

"The press are willing to co-operate with us so far," Hill said. "But I'm sure that'll only last for a limited time."

So the clock was already running on them finding a solution to this recently unleashed hell. It was an important part of his job to see patterns, but even a rookie could see something very bad was coming. The only questions that remained were what exactly was coming and how to stop it. Fury grimaced as a tersely-put message came through on his ear-piece. Richards and Xavier requesting his help, huh? He was convinced that they, in conjunction with Strange and maybe a few others were up to something, what that something was he wasn't quite sure what but he planned to find out what.

"Sir?"

He realised Hill was speaking to him, a puzzled look on his severe-faced second's face. "Yeah sorry," he took out his cigar, "just got a message on the ear-piece. I want you to get a team together and send them to pick up Slayer and Primal, Priority Alpha."

Dum Dum rose from his seat in the briefing room. "I'll lead them myself."

* * *

Faith sat opposite Xander, their kitchen table filled with an assortment of cereal boxes as they silently ate breakfast, the atmosphere between them still taut from the previous night. Faith sighed inwardly, she hated it when her temper got the best of her and pushed Xan away. Whatever her Watcher's strengths he didn't quite have the patience or the insight that Angel had that made the soulled vampire better equipped to deal with her.

She licked her lips. "You said you recognised the assassin right? Bullseye or somethin'?"

Xander looked up from his bowl. Apparently nothing said badass to Harris like a dish of Cheerios. "Yeah."

Okay, so she'd have to try a little harder. "Can't say I remember him," she commented. "Who is he?"

"Assassin for hire, but primarily a Daredevil villain although he's mixed it up with a lot of the Marvel verse's heroes," Xander replied. "He's an elite athlete, but doesn't have any superhuman abilities, except he's arguably considered the world's greatest marksman."

Faith raised an eyebrow. "Sounds bad-ass."

"Yeah-." Xander stiffened.

"What is-." Faith's eyes widened as she heard it too. "Shit!" Instinct took over, propelling her over the table and into Xander. The man gasped as he toppled backwards and hit the ground under her. "Shit!" Faith swore again as she leg-swept the breakfast table down on top of her just as the window exploded inwards, a flash-bang exploding overhead.

Faith squeezed her eyes shut and stuffed her hands over her ears until she felt the table being lifted off them. Then she burst upright and jammed her elbow back, catching a silhouette in the face, and knocking him back through the kitchen door. Another lunged at her, his gun leading the way. Faith kicked the gun out of his hand before gliding into a backfist to the face that knocked him into the wall. Faith blinked her streaming eyes as they began to re-focus, something very wrong with what she was seein'.

All the confusion was swept away by a stun-gun to the back that set her teeth chattering but also cleared her senses. A leaping back-heel kick to the face sent her assailant crashing into the wall, tearing the cupboard off to fall on top of him. Faith landed in a crouch, seeing Xander struggling with a trio of attackers, two crumpled men at his feet. A snarl on her face, Faith leapt at the trio, grabbing one by the collar while roundhouse-kicking another assailant away before flinging the man into the far wall. Ignoring the other two men turning their attentions to her and their stun-prods, she snatched Xander around the waist and threw the two of them through the broken window.

"Hold on!" she yelled as they fell, the wind whistling as she flipped herself on the bottom so to take the majority of the impact. "Shit!" Faith's back arched as she hit the top of one of the cars parked outside the apartment building, the roof buckling inwards and windows exploding as its alarm blared out a protest.

"You okay?"

Faith forced a grin at her friend's anxious expression. "Remember me? Sixth-floor girl? Two flours ain't shit. Now unless you're REALLY enjoying being on top, we best hustle."

"Yeah sorry." Her grin became rather more genuine at Xander's sudden flush. The Sunnydaler rolled off her and to his feet, pulling her up as he did so.

Faith looked left and right, grimacing as she saw more figures racing towards them and heard others rappelling down the side of the building at them. "We need to," she crouched by a manhole cover, grabbed a hold, and tore it loose, "get out of here." She took a breath before leaping into the hole.

"Ah crap!" she cursed as she splashed down into the sewage, the greeny gunk sloshing over her and then sloshing over her again when Xander splashed down beside her.

"Come on," Xander struggled to his feet a half-second before she reached hers, "we need to get out of here!"

"Yeah," Faith groaned as she looked down at her outfit of black silk blouse and matching leather pants. She'd been plannin' on goin' down to the X-Mansion, in part to train but also in the hope of catching the eye of that Colossus hunk, and to that end she'd put on her best now completely ruined clothes. "I love these pants." Faith followed Xander in hurrying down the darkened sewer, pulling sewage out of her hair as she did so. "Tell me if I'm wrong, but those assholes were wearing SHIELD uniforms weren't they?"

Xander half-turned towards her and nodded. "Yeah.

"Well shit, assassins, and the good guys after us?" Faith threw her hands up and shook her head. "Figures. 'Least our luck's holdin' steady."

* * *

SHIELD

"You lost them?" Fury listened to Duggan's report in quiet fury, his mind whirling as he did so. "Get the injured back to the infirmary and report to me in person."

Hill spoke the moment he hung up. "They escaped?"

"The boy put down a couple of my guys, the Slayer tore through half a dozen of them like they were paper," Fury reported. "Seems like if anything their abilities were under-estimated."

"Maybe they held back during testing?" Hill suggested.

"Maybe," Fury shrugged. That was unimportant right now, what was the priority was picking the duo up.

"Are you going to use the Vir-Rete?" Hill queried.

"Thinkin' about it," Fury replied. Vir-Rete or 'Hero-Net' was a prompt response system created by Reed Richards just after 9/11 that linked SHIELD to all the major super-heroes and super-teams across the world. Vir-Rete was a double-passworded and triple-encrypted network so secret that of all SHIELD operatives only he and Hill had knowledge of it, and only he had authorisation to use it. Finally he rose and strode down into the carrier's lowest floor, past the last of the guards and to a steel-grey, vault-like door with a bar-code reader set in the wall to its left.

Fury pulled the chain around his neck off and slid the dog-tags dangling from it across the infra red reader. The door beeped then slid soundlessly inwards. Fury hung the chain back around his neck and strode into the corridor, a yellow light triggered by his entry, the door sliding shut behind him. Fury strode over to the inner door and leaned into the optical reader and spoke into the voice recognition mike beneath. "Dugan, Jones, Ralston, Manelli, Cohen, Juniper, Pinkerton, Koeing."

After a second the door beeped. "Voice pattern recognised. Code-phrase recognised." The door hissed open, revealing a darkened room with a padlocked laptop on a desk. Fury strode inside, the door closing automatically behind him, sat on the desk's chair, and pulled the chain back off his neck, pressing the face of his dog-tags into the padlock. The padlock beeped and unlocked, springing up as the screen booted to life. "The modern world." Fury shook his head as he began tapping at the keyboard. He'd spent some of second world war sending messages by Morse code, never dreaming that just sixty years later the communications world would have been moved on so much.

* * *

Harlem, New York

"We've got a priority message from SHIELD," Colleen Wing announced as she stalked into the Heroes For Hire lounge.

"Yeah?" growled Cage from his slumped position, staring suspiciously at her through his half-open eyes. "What does the man want?"

Colleen looked back at their group's leader, unflustered by the habitual shield Cage put up even with them. "He's put out an alert on a couple of newcomers, powerful enough to knock out Strange and escape over twenty SHIELD agents meant to arrest them."

"Oh yes?" the group's other leader, a slightly-built man in a costume of yellow and green. "And I assume there's a print-out report on these two?"

"Yeah," Colleen dropped the report on their desk, "it's kinda mind-blowing really. They're code-named Primal and Slayer, and they're not from this dimension."

"Interesting," Iron Fist picked up a copy of the report.

* * *

Manhattan, New York

"Hey guys!" Night Thrasher hurried into the base's rec room, waving papers as he came. "There's a priority message in from SHIELD!"

"SHIELD?" Firestar looked away from the ping pong table game she'd been playing with Ultra Girl. "What do they want?"

"A pair of inter-dimensional travellers have attacked and knocked out Strange, now there's a general alert out for them," Night Thrasher explained.

"That sounds exciting," Rage rumbled.

Night Thrasher stared warily at the thickly-muscled black. "This sounds more like dangerous. I mean if this duo managed to take out Strange, he's one serious player."

"But we're going to look?" Ultra Girl queried, her eyes shining excitedly.

Night Thrasher stared around the anticipation-filled room before nodding. "Get your gear together, we're heading out in 15."

* * *

Houston, Texas

Captain America stared at the report in front of him, struggling to make sense of the words before him. He shook his head, years of experience told him this was a real weak case to hang someone on. But if Nick wanted these two kids, Nick got them. It didn't seem likely they'd get even close to over here, but the rest of America's Team needed alerting just in case.

* * *

Faith threw her sewage-soaked pants into the room's corner, pulled a pair of grey cargo-pants out of the wardrobe, and dragged them on, they were a couple of sizes too big, but they'd do in a pinch. They'd walked for what had seemed to be miles before coming out of the sewers in a run-down part of the city, complete with refuse-strewn alleys, boarded up businesses, and crumbling tenement buildings.

They were in one of the tenement buildings, the skills she'd learnt on the street a decade ago coming in very handy in gaining access to a dreary apartment with peeling, faded wallpaper and careworn furniture. Faith tugged off her shirt and grabbed a hoodie that matched her pants, pulling that on before hurrying to the kitchen to find Xander already there, her friend re-dressed in a blue and green checked shirt.

"We shouldn't be stealing stuff, they haven't got a lot."

Faith rolled her eyes at her companion's worried comment. Xander Harris, patron saint of the hopeless. "Look," Faith pulled out her wallet and stuffed a handful of crumpled twenties on the kitchen table, "there's a hundred and forty there. No way-."

"Oh thank god I've found you!"

The hairs prickled on the back of Faith's neck as she joined Xander in spinning to face the very familiar voice. "B-," she croaked.

"Buffy!" Faith felt a jealous surge at the grin on her Watcher's face as he started towards the rose-printed summer dress wearing blonde.

"Hi guys," Faith's eyes narrowed when Buffy 'flickered', "as you can tell I'm not actually here. Will's been sending me to a different dimension every day since you disappeared, looking for you."

"And now you've found us!" Xander beamed. "You won't believe where we ended up, Andrew would die-."

"Yeah," Buffy's smile was filled with pain, "thing is Will sent me to give you a warning."

"A warning?" Faith stiffened.

"Yeah," Buffy wiped at her eyes before continuing. "The hole you got pulled through destroyed Montreal, wiped it off the face of the earth, everyone there died." The blonde looked towards her, tears glistening in her eyes. "Including Angel."

"Shit," Faith felt like she'd just taken a sledge-hammer to the gut. Angel dead? It was like someone had removed her moral compass, torn her family away.

"Yeah, we don't know what happened exactly, but ever since you disappeared the world's been in chaos, tsunamis off the Cornish coast, earthquakes throughout America, LA's now an island, eons-dormant volcanoes erupting, floods in the Sahara, blizzards in the Pan Pacific, and typhoons in Paris, Munich, and Madrid. Every day something else goes wrong."

"And we caused this?" Xander slumped against the kitchen table.

"I'm afraid so," Buffy nodded dolefully. "And it gets worse."

"'Course it does," Faith groaned.

"You can't come home," Buffy winced at Xander's gasp. "I'm sorry, but another portal of the type that brought you here would only make the situation worse here, while causing the same sort of problems where you are." Buffy wiped at her eyes. "I know you wouldn't want anyone else to lose their sister."

"Their sister?" Xander groaned.

"Oh fuck," Faith moaned. She'd never liked Buff, but to lose her sister like that was the shits.

"Yeah," Buffy choked back a sob, "Dawn was in Cornwall, researching a lead on King Arthur when the tsunami hit. She along with one hundred thousand people, all dead."

"Oh god," Xander seemed to collapse inside on himself.

"Yeah," Buffy said with a nod, "Giles and Willow say good luck. It's not your fault, but we'll never see one another again. Bye."


	11. Chapter 11

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (11/?)**

Angel. Her best friend, mentor, and saviour dead.

A chill spread through her like a virus. Now she had nothing to go back for. It wasn't like she'd be missed, not with a whole army of -. "Shit!" Faith sprang to the side of Xander, grabbing him as he slumped into the alley's dirty wall. "What's up, Harris?"

"All those people dead, 'cause of us," Xander mumbled, eyes glassy with shock.

"We don't know for sure it was something we caused," Faith clumsily comforted, her hand wrapped around Xander's brawny forearm. "And even if it was, it was the mage doin' the spell not us."

"We're the ones who stopped him," Xander mumbled.

"And if we hadn't we'd be dead, not in this freak madhouse," Faith retorted.

"It's our fault," Xander whispered.

"Damn it!" In her panic she spun Xander around to face her and shook him. "Youse gotta keep it together, we've only got each other! I can't-." Faith forced her tone under control, conscious her shouting might well draw unwanted attention. "I can't manage in this world on my own."

Xander blinked, the desperation in her tone getting through to him. "Yeah, sorry. What's the plan?"

Faith released her grip on Xander and stepped back, suddenly discomforted at just how close they'd been. Faith smiled weakly. "I use my head for butting things remember? 'Sides you're the one who knows this world, that's why I need ya." Faith winked. "Hate to break it to you, but it ain't for your looks, honey."

"Yeah," Xander nodded slightly, brow furrowing. "We need to find out why SHIELD are after us."

"Eh?" Faith fell in beside Xander as they started down the alley. "What difference does that make?"

"Well we haven't done anything, but we can't prove that if we don't find out what we're wanted for in the first place," Xander replied.

"Yeah," Faith nodded, "guess that makes sense." Faith snorted. "Heh, me bein' accused of somethin' I haven't done, major plot twist."

Xander half-smiled. "It is sorta unprecedented."

"Hey," Faith bumped hips with her friend, "didn't have to agree."

Xander's smile broadened slightly. "Seemed the polite thing to do."

"Ha," Faith glanced up at the mocking voice floating down from the fire escape, "I feel like I'm co-starring in a buddy movie."

The speaker was a striking Latina with long, silky black hair, wearing a skin-tight, deep-cut v-neck white outfit with black stripes, her outfit finished by a tiger's mask on her face, and paws on her hands. "'Fore you ask," Faith muttered, "I ain't dressin' in anythin' like that." Faith joined Xander in backing away, her eyes fixed on the woman. "'Kay, what's the 411 if she attacks-." Faith's eyes widened as the woman dropped out of the sky to land in a crouch in front of them. "Or rather when!"

The woman came in fast, shooting a heel at Faith's face that she leaned away from. "This is the White Tiger!" Xander announced.

"No really," Faith slapped the foot away and spun into a roundhouse kick that her rival ducked under before leaping at her. "I'd have never guessed!" Faith met her rival's leap with a hook to the jaw that knocked her back, blood flying from the Latina's mouth.

The White Tiger stumbled back, dust scuffling under foot. "She's one of the good gals," Xander reported. "Slightly better than human, but you should be able to take her."

"Should? Such confidence!" Faith blocked a knee to her side on her left forearm, while using her right to block a hook to her face, then stepping in to deliver an headbutt that the White Tiger parried on her forearm.

The impact of the collision ran up and down her neck, but Faith ignored it to throw an uppercut that the White Tiger glided to the left of before driving a knee into Faith's thigh. "Shit," Faith stumbled back, then the moment her opponent surged in to take advantage reversed her momentum and caught her adversary with a fist to the gut. The moment the other woman began doubling up, Faith snatched her into a front facelock and cinched in hard before leaning in to deliver a coldly whispered message. "Listen bitch, when you wake up remember I coulda snapped your neck like a twig. Think 'bout that when you're deciding whose good and whose bad."

Xander chortled as she released White Tiger and allowed her to slump to the ground. "Unique way of making a point."

Faith shot her buddy a smirk. "Hey I'm pissed, alpha, and on the run, never a great combination." Faith picked up the limp Hispanic and dropped it in a dirty grey dumpster, the rotting stench that arose forcing Faith to rear back in disgust. "Jesus!"

"Didn't you already make your point?" Xander queried.

"Hey, whatever reality we're in, New York's a rough place," Faith defended. "I put her in there to make sure no-one hurts her while she's unconscious."

"And the fact she'll wake up covered in garbage?" Xander queried.

"Fringe benefit," Faith grinned.

* * *

"You know how you said we needed to find out why SHIELD was after us?" Faith said as they made their way across a darkened park. Xander nodded. "How do you figure to do that?"

Xander grimaced, he hadn't actually thought that far ahead. Seeing as Faith was looking to him to come up with a plan, he thought quickly. "There's two ways of doing it. Either we break into one of the SHIELD bases and hack into their system-."

"Heh," Faith snorted. "Unless my eyesight's really, really bad you're no Red."

"True," Xander bobbed his head, hiding his pain at the thought of his oldest friend. He smiled inwardly at Faith's reassuring squeeze of his hand. "In that case, our next best chance is to grab a high level SHIELD agent and question them."

"High level?" Faith queried.

"Fury, Hill, Dugan, Bridge, from memory a couple of others." Xander replied.

"Jeez," Faith groaned. "What a fuckin' choice." Faith shook her head. "Guess we go through door 2 then. Any ideas how we do that?"

"Help!" A shrill cry from another alley saved Xander from having to admit he didn't have a clue. "Get offa me!"

"Shut it bitch!"

Faith rolled her eyes as he started towards the commotion. "Ain't it enough we've got our own problems?" the curvy Slayer grumbled before following suit. "Now we've gotta solve everyone else's at well?"

* * *

He leapt from roof to roof with a skill and ease that only a tiny minority could match or exceed. The night's cool wind stroked his face like a lover's touch, bringing with it a myriad of smells drifting up from the streets below. At the same time his enhanced auditory senses effortlessly filtered out the city's sounds, the nightclubs, the traffic, conversational chatter, while ceaselessly searching for anything that aroused his suspicions.

"Help! Get offa me!"

The moment he heard the shriek, he changed direction in mid-leap, heading unerringly towards the disturbance, his senses picking up more details as he approached. There were four attackers, one victim, a woman. And, his interest quickened, a pair were already moving to intercept them.

* * *

"Take the near one, centre, and far side are mine," Faith instructed as she raced around the corner to find a quartet of heavy-set thugs, one black, one latino, and a pair of whites all around a now no longer screaming just whimpering black girl.

Faith sensed rather than saw Xander's nod, well-used to workin' in a team with her friend. And then she was on the attack, driving her heel into the lower back of one of the whites, the man crumpling as another spun around and tried a clumsy backhand.

Faith laughed, not even trying to duck the blow that bounced off her cheek, savouring the shocked look on her would-be assailant's face while side-kicking another thug in the knee. Even as the man fell away, his face greying in pain and hands dropping to his probably shatter knee-cap, Faith attacked the man stood in front of her.

The perfect punch requires a lot of things, power, speed, precision, balance, experience. Faith started at the legs and powered through her entire body, twisting at the waist, her arm shooting out, extending full-length so that her palm crashed into the man's beefy chest.

Bone cracked as her palm hit home, the man gasping as his legs flailed helplessly, knocking him on his ass, eyes closing as he passed out. The first man she'd hit was back up, a chain swinging down at her.

Faith leaned to the right, her mane billowing as the chain passed by. Her hand shot out, grabbing the chain and wrenching it from her would-be attacker's grip. Even as the guy's jaw dropped at her effortless power, Xander caught him with an overhand right to the side of his head that dropped him like a stone.

* * *

"So you're the two who have the super-hero community up in arms."

He smirked as the two looked up to him crouched on his fire escape landing. He'd arrived in enough time to see the entirety of the fight. The man was capable enough, but in no way exceptional. The woman on the other end had a combination of grace and power that was in some way reminiscent of Danny Rand or Cap.

"Oh boy," the man said breathlessly, "Matt Murdock. It's a huge honour."

All amusement fled at the utterance of his name. Daredevil stepped off the edge of the landing. The wind whistled around him as he fell, landing in a legs-apart crouch, just in front of the duo. "You know that name how?" he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

"Hey back off Redskin," growled the woman, "lay one finger on him and I'll cut your balls off and stuff them in your ears." The moment the woman started forward, his arm shot out, flinging his billy-club between the woman's legs, bouncing it off the wall behind her, and back to his hand. "Shit!" the woman wailed, hers was a Boston accent he decided, as she hit the ground and glared up impotently at the stars. "Just in case anyone's listenin', I fuckin' hate this reality!"

Beneath his mask, Daredevil's lips quirked up in a smile at the woman's helpless rage, but he was careful to keep his voice hard. "I asked you a question?"

"Um we're both from another reality we're you're all comic book characters," he sensed rather than saw the man's blush, "and I'm a big fan." Daredevil raised an eyebrow. It sounded ridiculous yet also sounded very true. "I know you can tell that we're telling the truth because it's one of your powers. So I also want to say that SHIELD are making a big mistake chasing us. We haven't done anything wrong. This is a big mistake. We need your help-."

"Xan, we work better -."

"Faith," Matt guessed the man's gaze hasn't moved from him, "you said I was the expert here, let me be the expert."

"Xan in charge," Faith groaned. "And every day I think this reality couldn't suck more ass!"

"We need your help, I have a sorta plan, but I need to your help to execute it." Xander continued. Daredevil nodded encouragingly when the young man fell nervously silent. The young man slowly explained his plan. It was a plan with a hundred holes in it, but it was probably better than nothing, and it amply illustrated the youth's knowledge of their world.

Finally he nodded. "I've got a safe house we can use tonight."

"Xan-."

"We can trust him Faith," Xander interrupted.

Faith let out a long-suffering sigh that Matt somehow knew she had a lot practice with. "Okay."


	12. Chapter 12

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (12/?)**

The apartment Daredevil led them to was only sparsely furnished and lacking in decoration, but then Xander supposed a blind man didn't need much in the way of ornament.

"Homey."

Xander winced at the sarcasm in Faith's mutter. If he could hear it, he was sure that his host could.

"I'll set everything up in the morning. I have some spare cells." Fortunately however, the super-human lawyer betrayed no emotion. "The bedroom's upstairs." Murdock paused. "Unfortunately there's only two beds."

"Oh man," Faith's chuckle was filled with enough menace to tell Xander she was far from amused, "the old 'we'll have to share' line."

"Hardly," Daredevil seemed unfazed by Faith's attitude, but then given his rogues gallery it was hardly surprising. "I was going to sleep on the sofa."

Faith cocked her head to one side, a considering look entering her dark eyes as she examined the costumed crime-fighter. "Tell you what, how 'bout a sparring match, winner gets the bed, loser takes the downstairs sofa."

Xander shook his head. Faith was in one of her moods, looking for a fight and not stopping until she got it. In spite of her feline beauty, sometimes Faith had more testosterone than a whole football team. Xander turned and headed towards the apartment's spiral staircase.

"You not stayin' to watch, Harris?"

"Nope," Xander didn't mess a step, "I've had two fights and walked through several sewers-worth of sludge. I'm all funned out."

* * *

"I'll do it," Daredevil kept his sightless eyes on the Bostonian. He'd never been one to shy away from a challenge, and besides he had to admit to more than a little curiosity about her abilities.

"Wicked," he sensed the woman's beam was shark-like. "Where do you wanna do this?"

"I have a gym in the basement," he started towards the far wall.

"Cool," Faith nodded. "How do you do that anyway? See without seeing?"

"When I was a child, I saved an old man from getting knocked over by a truck," he explained as he led the young woman into his basement, blue mats on its floor, speed and heavy bags dangling from its ceiling together with a pair of rings, and a gym horse, in addition to the dumbbells racked at the dimly lit gym's far end. "Unfortunately the truck crashed and radioactive waste spilled out, splashing me across the face and blinding me." Matt paused, lost in the memory of the last thing he'd ever seen. "But while I was recovering in the hospital, I discovered my hearing, smell, taste, and touch were amplified to superhuman degrees. I also developed a "radar sense" that formed a mental picture of my surroundings.

"You did a brave thing." Faith paused then grinned. "Almost as brave as facing me."

Matt found himself smiling despite himself. "Here's another question, you ready?"

He'd barely begun to nod when the Slayer launched herself forward. Unfortunately for her he'd sensed the weight shifting on her feet, so her surprise attack failed utterly, Daredevil stepping aside and leaving a fist for her belly to crash into, his knuckles aching as if he'd punched stone.

The Slayer grunted but was already shooting an elbow up and at the side of his head, forcing him to glide under her attack as he raced around her rear and drove a knee up at the small of her back. The blow only hit thin air as the Slayer back-flipped over him, and drove her feet down hard and into his back.

Hammer-like pain exploded into his rear deltoids as he fell forward, hitting the mats on his front, allowing momentum to carry him into a forward roll that ended with him leaping up and spinning around to face the on-rushing Slayer. He sensed her lead foot starting to pivot in a clock-wise motion while her right rear foot lifted off the mat.

Deducing that a spin kick was coming, he dropped into a slide that took him between the Slayer's spread legs, his hands reaching up to grab the shin of the brunette's grounded leg and yanking. The dark-haired beauty let out a surprised cry as she fell, but hit the ground hands-first, powering through them to reverse her fall and fly through the air, landing behind him.

Unfortunately for the Slayer, he was ready for her, catching her with a backfist that he knew from the smell drew blood. The brunette grunted but kept on coming, feinting with a left jab that he ignored even as he noticed the right foot powering off the mats and blocked the on-coming knee on his forearms, his own knee swinging up to crash into her right flank.

Even as the jarring impact resounded up and down his arms, the Slayer caught him with a right hook he sensed coming, but was unable to bring up his aching limbs up in time to block. Even though he managed to slightly pull his head back, the punch crashed into his jaw with a car crash's impact.

Blood pounded in Matt's ears as he stumbled backwards, reeling like a punch-drunk boxer as he blocked the Slayer's on-coming attack through instinct alone, pulling his head out of the way of a follow-up left uppercut while slapping away a knee at his gut. Blood filled his mouth as he grabbed the Slayer's arm at the wrist and elbow, and attempted to bend it back only for the brunette to snap her forearm forward with enough force to knock him onto his ass.

Daredevil backwards-rolled through the attack and up into a crouch. "You get the bed," he said. He had a few more tricks up his sleeve, but it was just a sparring session and there was no point getting beaten up over a bed. Besides, he sensed winning and losing in a sparring session meant a lot more to his rival than it did to him.

"Natch." Faith smirked at him. "You're a little beaten up, maybe you need somethin' soft to lie on?" The Slayer laughed softly. "I'm more fun than a waterbed."

"I'm honoured," Matt smiled, "but I don't have your healing properties, I'll need to rest up." His two guests might not be involved, but he'd smelt the pheromones wafting between the Slayer and her friend, and had no intention of complicating the fraught situation he found himself in by getting in the middle of the duo.

Faith shrugged. "Your loss."

"I don't doubt," Matt replied.

* * *

Daredevil awoke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and aching in his shoulders, jaw, and forearms. "Make mine black with two sugars."

"I'll get right on it," Xander replied from the kitchen. He heard the click of the kettle being turned on, then the young man turned to face him, the embarrassment coming off him in audible waves. "About Faith last night-."

"You don't need to apologise for her, her mistakes are her own."

"Yeah, I know," the boy had backbone, you could tell that from his tone. Xander was obviously in awe of him, but wouldn't back down from defending his friend because of his loyalty to her. "But you've gotta understand where Faith came on, if you didn't prove how tough you were, you got trodden on. And Faith got trodden on a lot before she got her powers. So now, she feels she always has to prove how tough she is to get respect."

And yet she already had her friend's respect and a lot more. "Life can make victims of us all if we let it," Daredevil replied. "It's the choices we make that define us." Daredevil smiled. "Yes I'm blind, but with my powers, I could have made a hell of a poker player."

"I'd like to see you win at online poker," he snorted at the young man's mutter. "You don't understand where Faith came -."

"Jeez, you apologising for again, Harris?"

Daredevil stiffened at the Slayer's husky voice. The beauty's tone sounded jaunty enough, but under it he could hear the young woman's anger. Rising he snatched up the cup of just brewed coffee. "Thanks for this, I'll go upstairs and," he opened up the drawer by the sink and pulled out the two Pay-As-You-Go cells there, "put our plan into motion."

* * *

Faith's teeth-gritted smile evaporated the moment the costumed crime-fighter was upstairs. Faith was under no illusion that he couldn't hear them with his enhanced senses, but right now she didn't overly care much. Where the hell did X get off making excuses for her? "What was that?" she hissed, eyes shooting daggers at Xander. "You head-shrinking me now, Xan?"

Xander flushed and squirmed. "What you did last night was-."

"Just a bit of fun," she angrily interrupted, unwilling to even entertain the slightest suggestion of her actions having a deeper, darker motive. "Jesus, X! I was just blowin' some steam off is all!"

"Just blowing some steam off?" Suddenly Xander was angry, dark eyes darkening still further. "We need Murdock's help and you decide the best way of getting it is to beat him up?" Xander shook his head. "You don't need to prove who's Alpha, he's on our side!"

"Alpha?" Even to her own ears her laughter had a brittle note to it. "We're in the major leagues now Harris, I'm as far from Alpha as you -."

Xander flinched and Faith winced inwardly. She might be pissed at Xan, but she didn't mean to hurt him, but as usual her mouth had run away with her. "Well maybe if you just dropped your shields just a little, you'd realise there are plenty of people in this world we can trust?"

"Can we?" she shot back. "Yeah, you have all your comics knowledge, but you said yourself not everything's exactly the same."

"You know," Xander took a calming breath before continuing, "at some point you're going to have to give people a chance."

"Who?" Faith shot back. "Same people who forced us on the run?" She was less satisfied then she'd thought she'd be when Xander didn't haven't a reply.

* * *

Murdock sighed as he listened to the duo's argument. Xander had an unerring ability to pinpoint his friend's problems, however doing so was unlikely to ease the tension between the two. That girl didn't make it easy for her friend to like her, not at all.

Clearing his mind of his companions' arguing, he picked up the first of the cells and dialled a number. After seven rings, the phone was answered. "Heroes For Hire: How may we help you?"

"It's a lot more pleasant to hear your smooth tones rather than Luke's rough bass, Colleen, but can I speak to one of your bosses?"

"Matt? Matt Murdock?" Colleen giggled. "It's a little early for Luke to be in work, but you got lucky, this is the day in the month he's in on time."

"Damn girl," he heard Luke's grumble in the background, "can you remember for five minutes who's business this is supposed to be. So," then the African-American man-mountain was speaking into the phone, "what does the Man Without Fear want with our humble operation?"

"Does Tyrone Johnson still work for you?" Matt queried.

"Yeah, he does, him and Dagger both." Luke promptly replied. "What's this about?"

"Here's the thing, you've heard the alert on the two kids that got SHIELD worked up into a fit?" Luke groaned. "They didn't do it Luke, you know they can't fool the human lie-detector, but they want the chance to explain everything without being snatched up by SHIELD. An escort by Heroes For Hire would at least give those chasing them pause to think."

"And who's paying the bill?" Luke growled.

"I'm sure a virtuous man such as yourself who loves helping the helpless could be persuaded to do this one for free ," Matt parried back.

"Damn, listen to that silver tongue. No wonder you're always gettin' defendants off in court. In that case," Luke growled, "tell me the plan."

* * *

The moment the phone was answered Daredevil began speaking. "I know my shields wouldn't last against a telepath of your power Professor, but you try and read me, and I'll hang up, understand?"

"Understood, Mr. Murdock isn't it?" the cultured man replied.

"Yes," he replied. "I've been in contact with a pair of people you're chasing in conjunction with Dr. Strange's coma. I've read them and can reliably inform you they had nothing to do with the attack on Strange. I realise however my word won't mean much, and can organise for them to meet you if that's agreeable?"

"Very," Professor Xavier replied.

"Very well," Matt continued. "Feel free to bring an escort, I will be bringing one of my own."

"Where do you want to meet?" Xavier queried.


	13. Chapter 13

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (13/?)**

Hell's Kitchen, NY

The stench of oil was thick in the air, especially for one with Wolverine's enhanced senses. He looked around the barren warehouse, a fire having left it nothing more than a gutted shell. He glanced around, nodding approvingly as he noticed his team-mates had all moved into position, surrounding their wheel-chair bound mentor. "What is this place, Prof?"

Xavier half-smiled. "I seem to remember reading about this place in the papers some two months. It was a car-ring run by the Kingpin until Daredevil put it out of business."

Wolverine nodded, then his eyes narrowed, senses tingling and hairs bristling. He looked around, but couldn't hear anything out of the normal hub hub of traffic. Then it started. "Ah hell," he growled, masochistically enjoying the feel of his claws skinting out of his knuckles. "I hate it when they get clever."

* * *

Harlem, NY

"Whoa," the leather-clad babe who strutted into his office and whistled appreciatively as her dark eyes scanned up and down his frame, "that's a whole lotta hunkiness."

"I'm liking what I'm seeing too," Cage replied.

"Naturally," the brunette's full lips parted in a smirk.

The one-eyed companion of the brunette's gaze seemed stuck half between jealousy and awe. "Um, Mr. Cage, it's a big honour to meet you."

"Yeah," Luke raised an eyebrow, "rrrrright." He guessed the rumours he'd heard were true, the kids were from some alternate dimension or other. He looked towards Matt, the defence lawyer dressed in his red, pointy-eared costume. "You give us the best jobs."

"Is your team ready?"

"We're all here," Daniel reported as he walked into the reception area, clad in his Iron Fist costume, the others following behind. "It's good to see you again."

Daredevil nodded. "And you Iron Fist." Daredevil looked towards the blue-cloaked black youth. "You're sure you can get us there?"

"It's what I do," Cloak replied.

"Wow," Xander shook his head, "I can't believe we're doing this."

Daredevil glanced at the one-eyed man. "This was your plan."

Luke raised an eyebrow. That was surprising, he'd expected the plan to be of Matt's making, but apparently not. "No," Xander shook his head, "I'm just nervous that's all."

Luke glanced towards his team of Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Black Cat, Cloak & Dagger. All very capable, but god only knew what sorta back-up Xavier would bring with him. If he was totally honest, the X-Men teams out-classed his outfit. Of course this shouldn't end up a fight, and if it did turn violent, Cloak could teleport them away, but there was a pesky old saying about plans not surviving first contact with the enemy. "Then let's go."

Xander let out a gasp as a dark bubble blossomed from around Cloak. "Neato."

* * *

"Ah," Xavier smiled as the black 'cloud' appeared at the far end of the warehouse, "a teleporter, ingenious."

"Everyone, be ready, but don't react unless they make the first move," Wolverine growled. "Kurt," he glanced towards the German, "you're on the Prof, it starts to get physical, you grab and take him back to the mansion."

The dark-skinned 'elf' nodded. "Understood mein freund." In an instance he was stood by the Professor's chair.

"Warpath," Logan glanced towards the Native American strong-man, "I want you to give Kurt all the time he needs to teleport."

"Understood," the towering muscle-man moved in to position, eyes as intent as always.

"Logan, these precautions are-."

"Mine to make." Logan cut off the Professor's protests with a head-shake. "Leave the strategy to the experts, Prof."

Xavier's lips thinned into a scowl, but then he nodded. "As you wish."

Logan's bushy eyebrows rose as the cloud 'opened' and a number of very familiar figures hurried out. "Luke, always a pleasure."

The gigantic African-American raised an eyebrow. "Likewise I'm sure."

Logan smiled as he glanced around. Heroes For Hire were capable enough, but Cage aside, not even Daredevil or Fist could compete with his people. 'Course, only a complete idiot under-estimated his adversaries. Hell, Daredevil could have more back-up out of sight, although he'd more than likely be able to smell or hear them.

As for the Slayer and her companion….

She was an eyeful and no mistake, the sorta girl you didn't bring home to Mom, but daddy would definitely approve of. Given what he'd read of her, she was as resourceful as hell, a fighter, and someone who didn't know how to quit, but her powers were unremarkable.

Harris was a toughie, plenty of raw material, the sort of person a Frank Castle could mould into something really dangerous. He was just grateful the Punisher hadn't gotten to him, otherwise he'd expect him to announce his arrival with a handful of grenades and finish off the party with a rocket launcher.

It was Daredevil who brought the tense silence, his tone unworried, but with an brittle undercurrent that perhaps only Matt and he noted. "We all know what we're here for," Matt began. "Xander and Faith have been accused of certain crimes, not limited to but including an attack on Doctor Strange -."

Faith snorted. Wolverine directed a stony gaze towards the sultry beauty. "DD say somethin' funny, toots?"

"Yeah," the Slayer stared back at him, unfazed by his challenge, "funny is the thought of me and X bein' able to take out this world's number one mage. Way I hear it, Strange could kick Red's ass, and no way are we," the Slayer's face contorted with anger, her high cheeks flushing crimson, "are we in that sorta class."

Xavier coughed, a flush rising in the wheelchair-bound man's cheeks. "Yes," he nodded slowly, "you do read as having no knowledge of the attack."

"Yeah," Faith shot the Professor a scorching glare, "but we already knew that. Why the hell did you figure it was us anyway?"

"Um," for once the normally poised academic looked flustered, "there was a note found with Strange's body saying 'bought with them' and 'came through the same portal'."

"J-e-s-u-s," the Slayer shook her head, expressive eyes filling with disbelief. "I thought you were meant to be smart, doctorates and all that. It came with us, don't mean we knew fuck all about it! What's your Masters in, stupidity?"

Professor Xavier reddened again. "I'll take you to SHIELD and give them both mine and Daredevil's testimony that you had nothing to do with this."

"Yeah," Faith glowered at Xavier, girl knew how to hold a grudge, "'cause our own testimony means shit don't it?"

Suddenly Xander took over from Faith. Which was probably real smart, 'cause whatever the gal's Masters might be in if she had one, he kinda doubted it had much to do with diplomacy. "Is he telling the truth, Mr. Murdock, will we be safe with them?"

Daredevil nodded. "His pulse rate and heart beat haven't shifted, he's telling the truth."

"Then we can trust them?" Faith's glower skewered the increasingly squirming Professor.

"You'll be fine," Daredevil soothed.

Wolverine's eyes narrowed as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up again, his nose quivering as several dozen unfamiliar and very foul scents approached their meeting place on each side. "Maybe not," he looked towards Nightwalker, "Kurt, get the prof out of the way, and bring us back some heavy hitters!"

Cage looked confused and more than a little angry. "Hey, there ain't no trap," rumbled the powerfully built black as Nightcrawler and the Prof disappeared in a cloud of sulphur.

"Yes there is," Wolverine raised his claws, "only none of us set it bub. Demons in-coming." He smirked at the Slayer's swearing. That girl knew some pretty salty language. "Best get ready."

* * *

"Thank you!" Xavier gasped as he and Nightcrawler re-appeared in his office, his lungs burning with the stench of brimstone. His hand slammed down on the pencil-grey intercom on his desk. "Colossus, Strong Guy, Beast, Rockslide, I need you in my office immediately!"

* * *

The walls exploded inwards, revealing their attackers' foul appearances. The demons were green with grey splotches across their scaled bodies, the things all stood between six and seven feet tall, their physiques broad and thick despite their height. The monsters' faces were hawkish featured but with a rhino-like horn jutting out of its forehead and the fangs at the corners of its broad mouth curved scimitar like while its dull brown eyes were devoid of emotion and indeed life. All this Wolverine saw as the things charged in, their spiked tails whipping menacingly through the air behind them, and their claws clicking with equal malignancy.

"Damn," Wolverine laughed throatily as he jumped into the attack, "these things look like pussies."

Wolverine's leap carried him to the first of the demons through the hole and rewarded its initiative by jamming his claws through its neck, blood gushing as its head flew off like a champagne cork. Wolverine powered through his thighs, bounding over the falling corpse, his claws slashing left and right as he took more demons' heads. A tail crashed into the side of his face, caving in the left side of his jaw and cheekbone.

Wolverine roared his pain but took it as a receipt for all the damage he was inflicting on the monsters massed before him.

* * *

Faith glowered, the things looked like living weapons, and she didn't have even a freakin' knitting needle to improvise with.

In short, this world continued to suck more than her mom on a public holiday.

Faith forced her frustration aside as she kicked the nearest demon square in the gut, knocking it back a step, then ducking under its swipe at her head, full mane bouncing as she came up inside the monster's defences, catching it with a left jab to the face, then grabbing its horn and yanking it down onto a leaping knee to the face. Then she was leaping into the air, kicking off the demon's chest and into a back-flip.

Faith landed in a crouch beside Xander, her hand shooting out to grab the wrist of a demon attempting to tear her bud's head off. "I don't think so," she grated, muscles burning with the effort of holding the demon back, then driving a back heel into the demon's knee.

The demon growled as it stumbled forward and into a rear elbow to the face, its nose caving in with the impact. The beast's howls were still ringing in her ears as she spun to face it and rammed her fingers into its throat.

The monster collapsed to the ground, its howls turning to strangled wheezes. Faith spun to Xander, her heart pounding with the familiar, welcome adrenalin that she could only get from a real good fight or screw. "Xan, stay clos-."

Her eyes widened when Xander grabbed her elbow and pushed away. "What the-." A red mist descended as she watched a demon's claw crash into his forehead. Blood jetted out of her friend's head as he took a blow that clearly meant for her. "You fucking bastard!" Her screech still ringing in her ears, she leapt over Xander's falling body and caught the demon with a kick to the knee and a left hook to the side of the head and a right uppercut to the head.

Another one came at her, all slashing claws. Faith writhed left and right, in and out of the rending blows, her own fists a blur as she beat the monster's face in, every blow shattering bone. As the demon fell away another took its place, Faith catching it with a foot to the face that sent it flying back into the melee.

"Noooo!" Faith screamed as she spun back to Xander, a freezing terror clenching her belly as she realised she'd been drawn away from her friend's still body. It only took her a half-second to cover the three paces separating her from Xander, but the nearest demon was only a pace from him.

"Nooo!" She screamed again, blood rushing in her ears, eyes fixed on the creature's downward swinging claw. Xander's body arched up, mouth opening in a silent scream as the demon's claw cleaved through his chest.

Faith's world filled with pain and rage, so much so that she stopped still, her hands dropping to her side as she stared horrified at the blood pumping out of her friend's soon to be corpse. The monster smirked at her, rejoicing in her despair, its spiked tail swinging up at her head.

"I think not." A steel hand intercepted the approaching spike, grabbing it, and tearing the tail from the demon with a single yank.

Faith barely noticed Colossus' rescue as she sunk to her knees, tears flowing down her face as she stared at the corpse before her, an ugly hole where his heart should be. She'd promised to look after him, but now he was dead, dead saving her life.


	14. Chapter 14

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (14/?)**

All around was darkness, a black so thick and deep, he couldn't see more than a couple of inches in any direction. Gradually though, he grew aware of a presence watching him.

"I was wondering when you'd notice."

"Eeeep!" Xander jumped at the deep voice. Suddenly a spotlight illuminated Xander's companion. "Uatu the Watcher," he cricked his neck as he peered up at the gigantic alien, "wow, you're really, really tall"

The Watcher half-smiled. "And you're really, really dead."

"Yeah," Xander winced. "So I remember."

"You don't have to stay dead, I can bring you back to life," the Watcher offered.

"Wow," Xander blinked. "Not that I'm not grateful, but doesn't that break your non-interference agreement in a major way?"

"Yes," Uatu nodded slightly. "There are ways around that though. You're not from this dimension, so technically I'm not interfering. But this will be an one-time occurrence and you will be unable to tell anyone who helped you."

"You'd make a great lawyer with that wriggle room," Xander dryly commented before shaking his head, "I don't suppose you can't tell me who's behind all this trouble?"

Uatu shook his head, face expressionless. "That would be interfering too much. Would you like to go back? Be warned, here you will have peace, but there will be filled with danger, responsibility, and pain in addition to great accomplishments and joy."

"Not exactly the galaxy's greatest salesman are you?" Xander swallowed before nodding. "I left a friend behind and alone in a world she doesn't know, I've got to go back for her, even if I didn't want to for myself."

"Your loyalty does you great credit." Uatu nodded. "Ready yourself."

Xander nodded. "By the way, anyone ever told you, you could do a really, really good Budda impression?"

"Yes." Uatu scowled. "Deadpool."

* * *

Faith stared into Xander's closed eyes, her hands slick with the blood she was vainly trying to wipe off his face. "Xander, Xander," Faith shook uncontrollably, unable to do anything but babble. "Oh fuck, oh fuck, you gotta get up. Come on, you're my Watcher, I ain't havin' another die on me."

The battle had just ended, the mutants and Heroes for Hire crowding around them. "Faith," she dimly heard Daredevil's soft tone, the lawyer having crouched down opposite her, "we need to teleport out of here, before any reinforcements get here."

"You hear that, Xan?" Faith shook her friend's shoulders. "You need to wake up now, bud."

"Holy shit!" Wolverine crouched down beside Daredevil. "You heard that right, Matt?"

"Yeah," Matt muttered, "but he's been down for close to ten minutes, they tore his-," the costumed crime-fighter shook his head, "it's impossible."

Just then Xander's body bent up in the middle, his eye shooting open as he let out a rattling groan. Faith stared open-mouthed at her friend for a split-second before throwing herself on him and engulfing him in a rib-cracking hug.

"I'll say somethin'," Luke growled. "Boy's under the thumb if bein' told to wake up can bring him back from the dead."

* * *

SHIELD HQ

"We'll have to run some more tests on Mr. Harris, if you could just give us a minute alone Ms. Lehane?"

Faith returned the nurse's polite request with a scorching glare. "No. Fucking. Way. You assholes have been tryin' to hunt us down for the last 24 hours, I don't like bein' here, but if I have to be here, we ain't splittin' up."

"Faith," Xander put a calming hand on his friend's shoulder as the paling doctor hurriedly retreated out of the examination room, pretending not to notice the barely dried tear tracks running down her high cheeks. "I'll be fine."

Faith shot him a scalding look, like how dare he refuse her protection or die on her. "Fine," she grated before shooting the paling nurse the same look, "but I'll just be in the corridor outside."

* * *

Nick Fury looked up from the test results and scowled at Dugan. "You're telling me he's normal?"

Dugan nodded. "We ran the same tests as before – blood, urine, MRI, CT, X-Ray, and CAT. They all came out as the same as last time. A slightly but far from noticeably powered human. No medical evidence of any resurrection having taken place."

"And yet we have testimony from Wolverine," Maria Hill flashed one of her rare smiles, "and other more reliable sources that he died."

"Hell," Dugan grunted. "Why sugar-coat it? He had his heart ripped out!"

"What's his story?" Fury grunted. "That a dimensional power interfered? That's a little vague, why didn't he say which one?"

"According to him," scepticism dripped from every syllable of Maria Hill's reply, "it's part of the deal, he can't say. Says the power might get into trouble if it got out that he'd interfered."

Fury smiled slightly, with that wording everything fell into place. Of course the others wouldn't know because SHIELD files on the Watchers were classified For His Eyes Only. Of course there was also the possibility Harris was lying, but at this moment in time, the only thing they could do was keep an eye on him.

* * *

"Why did you do it?"

"Um," Xander's brow furrowed as Faith stalked back into the treatment room, a strange look on his companion's features. He paused in pulling his jacket. "I know we're close, but it was bad enough stripping down to my boxers in front of the nurse without you making smart-ass comments about my 'package'."

Faith shook her head, appearing unamused by his rapier-like wit. "N…no not that." Faith paused. "I'm the Slayer, not you."

The furrows on Xander's forehead deepened as he struggled to make sense of this cryptic conversation. "I do hope this isn't going to be a me Tarzan, you Jane moment? I just died, I really don't need emasculating to boot." Well more emasculated than normal.

"I'm the one who's supposed to die saving you, not the other way around!" Faith snapped.

Xander blinked at his friend's fury. "By the way you're welcome."

Suddenly Faith was in his face. "You don't get it do you!" she shouted. "I was so scared!" Xander was alarmed to see tears again glistening in his friend's dark eyes. "You can't do that to me! I fucking need you!"

"Women," Xander muttered as the Slayer stormed out, "can't live without them and if you're not careful they won't let you live with them."

* * *

"Mr. Harris and Ms. Lehane, please come in."

Faith glared at the man sat behind the office's desk. "If this is a trap, I'm gonna rip your one eye out and give it to Xan so he's got a full set again."

Xander gulped. There Faith went again, making friends and influencing people. Although the offer of matching set of eyes was a generous one. "What she meant to say is, it's a pleasure meeting you, sir."

"Like hell," Faith grunted, her steely gaze meeting the World War II legend's. "Where the hell do you get off, chasing after us based on some garbled notes? What the hell happened to, you know, evidence?" Faith's eyes hardened still further. "And I'd finally found a pair of leathers in this dimension that fit and your goons ruined them! You are so getting a bill for them."

"Duly noted," Fury rose, his unfazed expression suggesting he was either nuts or as brave as the comics indicated. "Now you've made your feelings clear would you like to hear about the ritual Strange was working on when he was attacked?"

"Sure," Xander said before Faith could continue doing her bit for inter-dimensional diplomacy.

"This," Maria Hill pressed on a remote control, a slide appearing on the far blank wall, "is the prophecy that Strange was working on."

Xander blinked as he peered at the prophecy. "Um, I'm no linguist, but I don't recognise the language."

"It's a derivation of ancient Celtic, a prophecy by Pelia the Wise, a famous British druid of the 5th century BC.," Fury explained.

"And you typed it up on the computer?" Xander queried, hairs prickling uneasily on his neck.

"No," Hill shook her head. "We scanned it in."

Xander stared at the woman, jaw dropping open. "You scanned it in before you knew what it said or was?" He shook his head and continued before either SHIELD agent could reply. "Are you complete idiots? Would you load up some computer code before you knew what it said?"

Faith snorted. "I thought I was supposed to be the one with a mouth."

Xander ignored Faith's comment in favour of continuing his tirade. "This could have been a spell that destroyed your computers and all networked to it. Heck back in Sunnydale, when a demon was accidentally scanned into our computers, it gained access to the world's finance systems, hospital critical care, nuclear missiles. You don't put things into computers unless you know what they are!"

"Point taken," Fury growled. "Now the lecture's over, kid, you wanna hear what we found?"

Xander flushed, suddenly embarrassed that he'd dared to lecture the great Fury. "Hey," Faith growled, "you might be the hot shit when it comes to James Bonding it, but you might wanna listen to Xander when he talks 'bout the supernatural, he knows his stuff."

Xander blinked, surprised by Faith's hot-tempered defence. Fury's gaze flitted between the two of them before nodding. "Duly noted for next time, I'll make a note in operational protocols, okay?"

"'Kay," Faith replied.

"We had our best linguists and anthropologists work on it to translate it to this." Hill pressed on the remote control, the slide changing to one in English.

"In score and six hundred years hence, crafts shall fly in the sky.

Great buildings shall touch the heavens, empires rise and fall.

Agents of change shall come from another like world.

And the world shall stand on the edge of a howling abyss.

The agents of the darkness shall come together.

The righteous shall die in places of great atrocity.

Their unholy sacrifices rending holes in the world.

Holes through which the demon hordes shall swarm.

The sun shall darken, and eternal night will be cast," Xander read.

"I'm no-one's idea of a literary critic but then Pelia's no-one's idea of light reading," Faith commented. "Jesus, he was a cheery SOB wasn't he?"

"We've had our best historians look over Pelia," Hill said. "According to what we've been able to find, Pelia made over two dozen prophecies. Of those twenty have come true, relating to such events as 9/11, World War II, the assassination of President Lincoln, the fall of Rome, and the Crusades."

"He's got a batting average that blows Nostradumus out of the water," Xander commented before looking towards Fury. "What are you planning to do about this prophecy?"

"There's a problem," Fury grimaced. "None of the experts are aware of the existence of this prophecy so there's a possibility it's a fake."

"You can't take that chance," Faith protested.

"We're not going to," Dugan spoke up for the first time. "Besides, over the last few weeks we've noticed a number of deaths in sacrificial manner of the likes hinted at in the prophecy."

"You're sure they're linked?" Faith queried, all earlier hostility replaced by a look of curiosity.

"Faith, 'Agents of change shall come from another like world' has to be us," Xander pointed out.

"The agents of the darkness appear to be groups either worshipping the apocalypse or demons, 'the righteous' seem a variety of people of good repute – priests, charity volunteers, social workers, doctors, always people highly thought of in their local communities," Dugan said.

"And 'places of great atrocity'?" Faith queried.

"All the sacrifices have taken place at places of genocide, war crimes, and the like," Dugan replied. "Massacres of Native Americans, Japanese interment camps, and the butchery of slaves seem favourite in America."

A grim silence followed the reminder of some of America's less than glorious past. "The sacrifices seem to be growing in number, doubling each day. We estimate there will be six hundred and sixty six tonight," Hill said.

Faith whistled. "That number can't be a coincidence."

"Yeah, it didn't exactly pass us by either," Fury grunted.

"So what's your plan?" Faith demanded. "You have one right?"

"Yes," Fury nodded at Hill who pressed on the remote, some sort of venn diagram coming up on the display. "We've had Richards, Pym, and Stark working on a predictive program that uses what we know of the likely targets, places, and groups to come up with a master-list of two and a half thousand people worldwide who fit the profile and who haven't been seen in the past 48 hours, and who live or have gone missing at or near likely sacrifice sites, and live in the vicinity of possible groups. We have SHIELD agents surveying the sites and groups to prevent any possible sacrifices."

"Two and a half thousand people?" Faith whistled. "That's a lot of people."

"We're calling in every agent on this. It's top priority, and where possible these agents are backed by meta-humans," Fury said.

"Great, but that deals with tonight only," Faith pointed out. "What about the big cheese guiding all this?"

"Yes," Fury nodded. "We're only dealing with the immediate threat at the moment, the search for the mastermind behind this operation will have to wait, until we have know more information. Strange is working with our arcane department to track down leads, we have certain suspects in mind, the amount of power and resources required, not to mention the motivation, and degree of manipulation narrows the field to the likes of an Elder God or an Old One."

"Of course, agents of change might not refer to you directly," Dugan commented. "It might refer to something that came with you. One of these Old Ones you referred to or a fallen Power. "

"Oh fuck," Faith suddenly breathed. "Xan, what if what we saw wasn't Buffy, but the First?"

Xander felt like he'd been punched in the gut, shock and wild hope filling him. If that had been the First, then the chances were what it had claimed was happening in their own dimension might not taken place at all. The world might not be devastated, their friends not fighting a desperate battle against extinction. "Maybe it was."

"'Kay whatever," Faith shook her head and turned to Fury, all business. Clearly their world wasn't as important to her as it was to him. Although maybe that wasn't fair, she didn't have the reasons to have to be attached to their world he had, and he didn't know anyone with a greater survivor's instinct than Faith. "We can't do anythin' 'bout that right now, so the question is, which team are we assigned too?"

Fury and Hill exchanged glances. "We weren't sure you were ready," Fury said.

"We are," Xander interrupted, his tone as stern as he could manage in the company of Nick Fury.


	15. Chapter 15

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (15/?)**

Genosha

Magneto glared around his throne room, the mystical sensors he'd set up going off inside his ever-present earpiece. Teeth gritted, he snatched at the helmet plated to protect him from telepathic manipulation, put it on, and rose from his seat. "Who dares?"

"We dare."

"Ah, yes," Magneto nodded at the armoured, cowled figure and a pinch-faced man clad in a chain-mail hauberk and chausses underneath a bearskin cloak. "Loki and Doom, of course. It is not in my nature to welcome uninvited intruders."

"Aren't all uninvited guests intruders?" Loki smirked, emerald eyes flashing with dry amusement.

Doom glared at the trickster. "I'm not here to argue semantics, nor in engage in pointless word-play."

Magneto raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you here?" he demanded. "As low as I am on hospitality, I am even lower on patience."

Loki smiled. "Ah Erik, always the welcoming host."

Magneto glared at the Norse God. "As I've said, if I wished to bandy words with anyone, you'd be low on the list, trickster."

"There's no need for name-calling," Loki's smile broadened.

"We have concerns about our new ally's plans," Doom interrupted, his tone as cold and impersonal as expected.

"Concerns?" Magneto prompted.

"About just how far the First's schemes will go." For once Loki had lost his smirk. "The Asgardian legends speak of the one who came before, and wrecked nought but devastation in his wake."

"Before?" Magneto demanded.

"Before the Asgardians, before even the time of the Elder Gods, it is recorded there was a great war between two beings, the First Good and the First Evil," Loki explained. "A battle so great that it re-made the cosmos and the multiverse, and destroyed the First Good, his dying action forcing the First Evil into an incorporeal state and prison. Over thousands of years the cosmos re-made itself, and these Old Ones he wishes to bring back where one of the first lifeforms to gain sentience. They were strong and numerous, but not as powerful as those called the Celestials who forced them from this plane of existence." Loki looked at each of them in turn. "Should the Old Ones return and reach their full power even the most super-powered amongst us would struggle to stand against them, especially if the First Evil also escapes its prison." Loki paused. "Neither Galactus nor Thanos could stand against the First Evil in his corporeal state."

Magneto sat for a few moments, allowing the enormity of Loki's words sink in before speaking, grateful that his voice was as cold and dispassionate as usual. "Then what do you suggest?"

"We allow the First his head, allow him to slaughter those who would oppose our plans, but at the last," Doom seemed to smile behind his mask, "we ambush and stop him."

"What of our other allies?" Magneto replied, his tone non-committal.

"What of them?" Dr. Doom sniffed. "Selene aside they're nothing more than mindless muscle, or in Mordo and Scratch's case, middling magicians. We are the three with power."

"An alliance of traitors," Magneto chuckled. "One can't help but think this will not end well. But very well, the First's plans concern me greatly, I can't help but conclude that should his plans reach their conclusion they would end with both homo-sapien and homo-superior alike enslaved if not extinct. I can't, I won't allow that."

"Then we're agreed," Doom replied. "We work with the First while he thins the ranks of those who would oppose us, but stop him before his plans can reach completion. He cannot be allowed to corporealise."

"And how do we stop him?" Magneto queried.

"That I haven't worked out yet," Loki admitted. "We will have to scour the world's tomes for knowledge."

Magneto didn't smile until the other two teleported away. A slaughtering of the world's heroes, leaving he, Magneto, and Loki of those commonly considered the world's true super-villans alive, the world to divide or bicker over as they decreed. The next few days promised to be very interesting.

* * *

Athens, Greece

Elektra dived under the crossbow bolts, flinging her sai blades up and through the two crossbowmen's throats, blood jetting out of their wounds as they fell. The momentum of Elektra's roll carried her through into a crouch and then up in at leap that took her into the path of the last remaining cultist. A smooth sidestep took her outside the cultist's attempted back-handed slash, her knee driving up and into the fanatic's belly, hand descending into a karate chop to the back of the man's neck as he doubled up, knees buckling under him as he crumpled to the ground, a follow-up stomp shattering his skull. Elektra smiled as she stalked her way through the corpses en-route to the prize.

"Hi," she smiled as she crouched by the tethered would-be sacrifice and began unfastening the woman's bonds, "I'll have you free in a minute."

* * *

Haiti

The candles at the pentagram's corners snuffed out at a single word, stilling the cultists chanting, their eyes and those of their sacrifice turning towards him as he stepped through the door, the guards having already being dealt with. "I am Brother Voodoo," he laughed deeply at the cultists' shock. It would be good for these monsters in human form to feel the terror they so often gave out for a change. "And your foul machinaitons are at an end!"

* * *

Trenton, New Jersey

"Man," Faith's nose wrinkled as she looked around the grimy, industrial city, "Trenton really is the armpit of the US."

"Fortunately we're not here to sight-see," Xander pointed out in a whisper. "We're here on business."

"I hear ya," Faith glanced around the waste-ground and forced back a shudder. In the 80s this ground had been used as the burial ground by 'The East Coast Skinner', a serial killer who had left the skinned corpses of eight young women up and down the east coast. There had been a building here back in the 80s, and its owner had kept the corpses in a secret basement, hung them on the freakin' walls on meat hooks if you could believe that.

Worse thing was, the prick had been a freakin' human. Yeah, sometimes she wondered if the demons didn't deserve this whole freakin' mudhole.

Faith forced herself to focus. "What we facin'?"

"Two days ago an adoptions social worker failed to return home," Quatermain replied in a whisper, the SHIELD agent crouched beside them. "A thirty year woman who always takes on the toughest cases, the kids no-one wants."

"Sounds like the sort for a sacrifice," Faith muttered. "What 'bout the cult?"

"Tomorrow's Red Dawn, just your typical apocalypse cult, no super-powered or magic users," Quatermain reported.

"Wicked," Faith stared through her infra-red sights. "There's what eight of them?"

"Yeah," Quatermain nodded. "If you must, let the cultists escape. But they can't be allowed to kill the sacrifice."

Faith faked a yawn. "I was at the briefing, I know the drill."

"You were doing your nails," Xander paused, "with a K-Bar."

"Girl's gotta manicure," Faith retorted.

"I knew when I pranked Dugan, he'd get me back." Quatermain sighed before picking up his radio. "On three, turn the floodlights on. One, two, three!"

The moment the floodlights turned on, bathing the derelict wasteland in light, Faith was up and racing forward, the other agents made to look slow by her speed. Leaping in the air, Faith came down hard and heavy, leading with a downward swinging right that shattered the jaw of the cultist unlucky enough to be on the receiving end while twisting at the waist away from another dagger thrust at her belly.

Dust billowed as she landed, parrying the wrist of a knife slashing down on her forearm while uppercutting up and beneath her arm into her adversary's jaw, her blow's impact lifting the man from his feet and flipping him in an 180. Before the man hit the ground, Faith was racing on, towards the sacrifice's still body.

A linebacker-sized man lunged up into her path, throwing fists the size of spades. Faith let the first bounce off her forehead, then ducked the next, sliding inside before the beetle-browed giant could adjust to the fact that a babe maybe a third his weight and over a foot shorter could take one of his punches without flinching. Her knee jammed up at the mammoth's crotch, but was deflected by a thick-set thigh. Without missing a beat, she reached around the back of the man's leg, grabbed hold, and pulled, while yanking her head back out of the way of a thunderous left hook.

The man let out a grunt as he crashed to the ground like a felled redwood, her ball-busting kick to the groin, putting end to any thoughts of the man getting up. And then just like that it was over, the cultists in custody in minutes. "Whoo!" Faith did a victory dance that would get her arrested for breaking decency laws in most states. "Give me an E! Give me an A! Give me a S! Give me Y!"

* * *

Quatermain tore his eyes away from the grinding, writhing brunette, her long mane flicking seductively from side to side, and just about everything else jiggling. "Was she a cheerleader in this previous life of hers?"

"Oh hell no," muttered the girl's companion, "and if you want to keep your balls in the same rough position as they're in now, never ever suggest that to her."

"Right." Quatermain nodded then paused. "But she was an exotic dancer who wore a cheerleader's outfit right?"

"Oh yeah." Xander shrugged then amended. "Well in my dreams anyway.".

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier

Maria Hill hurried into the packed conference room, agents rushing to and fro, the room reeking of tense excitement. "Two reports in from New Zealand, our agents managed to stop two sacrifices."

"Good," Fury nodded, grizzled brow furrowed, "mark them on the board."

"Yes sir."

Hill hurried past the world war II legend and to the whiteboard at the room's front as Fury let out a bark. "Dugan, where are those figures from the west coast?"

* * *

An Island In The Pacific

The sun beat down on the quartet as they made their way through the leafy jungle. The man at the rear was several inches over six feet and well-built, clad in purple-body armour that would have looked silly on anyone else. To his right stood an even bigger man, both in musculature and height, his sweat-stained gym shirt had a cross-bones on it, and his mask was adorned with a skull. To his left stood a man the size of the first, dressed in a white cowl and cape, and wearing a skull-mask like the second.

To untrained eyes, he was the most normal-looking of the four, just a middle-aged, doughy bodied white man. The truth was of course quite different, he might wear the skin of Bolivar Trask, but he was the First Evil, and he fully intended to utilise Trask's knowledge for his schemes.

He led his guards through the densely foliaged forest, the heavy humidity making each of his companions sweat as birds chirped in the distance, and rodents rustled in the undergrowth. Finally they came to a mossy slope. The First smiled and spoke in Trask's voice. "Tanya."

The slope's moss split in the middle and slid to the sides the moment he spoke, revealing an eight-foot high and wide blue-steel door. The First looked to a cupboard-sized boulder to the door's left. "Larry." The boulder rolled over, revealing a numeric key-pad underneath it. "One of you," he heard the excitement in his voice and savoured it, "the number '1976' into the keypad."

The First smiled as Paladin crouched over the keypad and obeyed. "Why are we here, boss?" queried the Taskmaster, the assassin's tone carefully deferential.

The First watched as the doors slid open, their opening accompanied by a slight whirling, lights flickering on inside the small hill to reveal a blue-steel bridge. Then he turned to his three subordinates and replied. "The world I come from had its defenders, but they were nowhere near as powerful or as numerous as this one. Bolivar Trask wasn't just wary of mutants, he feared all super-powered beings." He started inside the facility, his companions foot-steps clicking on the polished floor behind him. "And he was an exceptionally wealthy man from his inventions and so he created this place."

The First came to a halt at the blank wall at the end of the bridge. "Evolution." The single word cause the blank wall to ripple away to reveal a silver elevator door with a mike attached on the wall to his left. The First leaned into the mike and spoke. "Telepathy."

The door slid to the right. "After you gentlemen," the First stepped to the right and bowed, allowing the three solids to walk past him and into the elevator, the First following them, and nodding at the numeric keypad fixed there. "Someone type 1978 into there."

As Paladin obeyed, Crossbones spoke. "You were saying?"

"Yes, I was." The First nodded as the elevator plummeted down several levels. "Trask bought this island, and created this facility to combat the super-human plague. Now, I've managed to rid myself of the Sentry and Doctor Strange, but there are too many left, too many obstacles. Leaders like Nick Fury and Captain America, groups like the Fantastic Four, brains like Tony Stark, and powerhouses like the Hulk. But this place-."

"Whoa!" Paladin let out a gasp as the door opened to reveal rows upon rows of Sentinels, an army of them in fact, all silently waiting orders to kill. Orders he would be more than happy to give.

"Whoa indeed," the First continued. "As I was saying, Trask bought this island and created this facility to strike against the super-powered should their existence ever threaten this earth. To that end he also created a database\tracking program that detailed as many of the world's super-heroes as possible, so if the time came, he could attack them. Even better, using the Sentinels might well cause some temporary discord between the mutant and human super-powered community."

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

Light returned not gently, but blazing through the inky darkness. His mouth opened in a wordless cry as pain sliced through him, back arching as his eyes shot open in horror, all he'd discovered flooding over him. Throwing back his sheets, he rose, legs shaky beneath him as he stumbled over to the intercom, pressed, and spoke into it, his throat scratchy from dehydration. "It's Strange, I need to see Fury immediately."


	16. Chapter 16

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (16/?)**

MI-13 HQ, Whitehall Building, London

"Mr. Wisdom, here are the figures from last night's attempted sacrifices."

Wisdom glanced at the aide that had just hurried into his office, the scouse lass flushed with excitement. "Be a dear and summarise them for me."

"Yes sir," the smartly-dressed red-head plopped down in the seat at the other side of the desk, bespectacled gaze flipping over the sheets in her hand until she reached the last, "last night we executed thirty-nine raids. Five found no-body at the locations, three were too late, the sacrifices had already happened, six were unsuccessful, the victims died despite our teams' attempts, and twenty-five missions were successful, saving the victims although we lost fifteen agents."

"God," Peter Wisdom's heart caught in his throat. All these people dead. He wondered if he'd know their names if his aide recited them for him, if some of them were even people he'd personally selected. His eyes narrowed as his secretary looked up, mouth opening in a question, then he heard it and joined her. A sudden instinctive fear gripped him, sending him lunging over the desk to send her crashing to the ground as the roof collapsed on them, burying them under several tons of rubble.

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

"This First is a power beyond description, it and its counterpart have existed since before the dawn of time-."

"You're not tellin' me anythin' new, Doc," Fury drawled at the gowned man who'd been wheeled into his office just minutes ago. "What I need is somethin' we-." Fury's voice trailed off as his desk's computer went nuts.

"What's wrong?" Strange leaned forward, the sorcerer's eyes alight as he sensed Fury's sudden distress.

"We've got multiple bogies attacking multiple targets throughout the world," Fury explained as he reached for his intercom. "I'm putting the helicarrier on full alert!" he bellowed before looking towards Strange. "Can you help?"

Strange shook his head. "I'm afraid not, it's taking all my energy to stay awake. If we had an hour-."

"We don't," Fury rose as klaxons began blaring through the helicarrier. "We have two minutes at most."

* * *

Thunderbolts Mountain, Colorado

Dr. Val Cooper groaned as she shut her office door and slumped into her seat, thankful for the at least momentary peace. Being in charge of six supposedly reformed but definitely touchily egoistical super-villains was the surest way she knew to guarantee an ulcer and a headache.

Val Cooper shook her head as her computer began to beep. Ignoring it, she closed her eyes and attempted to centre. Her eyes shot open and she jumped bolt upright when klaxons began blaring through the mountain compound. "What the-."

Suddenly the world exploded in lights, noise, and flames, pain was the last thing she knew before oblivion.

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

Fury glanced around the helicarrier's bridge as his personal teleportation device transported him from his office in an instance. "Report!" His bark cut through the bridge's nervous chatter, every eye turning to him. "Watch officer, report!"

"Yes sir," a tall, thin kid who looked like he should still be in college chasin' teeny-boppers hurried over to him. "Multiple bogies attacking on multiple attack vectors, numbering twelve, ninety seconds out."

"Show me!" Fury's solitary eye widened as the screen display came up. "They're early model Sentinels, what the hell-." He shook his head, shoving that question away as unimportant for now before leaning over his desk and barking into the mic. "I want Defence Pattern Delta, blow those machines outta my sky!"

* * *

Atlantis

Namor scowled and rose from his seat as the head of his palace guard raced into his throne room and dropped to one knee. "Don't stand on ceremony when proximity alerts are blaring through the palace, talk man!"

"Yes sire," the palace guard rose and passed him a sensor pad. "Thirty unidentified missiles are heading towards us from the surface, we've put perimeter defences on full alert."

"They're not unidentified missiles," Namor snarled as a red mist settled before his eyes, "they're Sentinels and the surface-dwellers will pay for attacking us with them!"

"Sire!" the palace guard swayed as Atlantis' shields were rocked by a barrage of shots. "Reports are coming in, we've taken out most of the first wave, but more are arriving."

"But our defences will hold?" Namor demanded, before letting out a relieved sigh at the guard's nod. "Then you have duties to attend to, go." The moment the door closed behind his subordinate, Namor strode over to his throne and opened up its right arm, revealing the Illuminati communicator secreted there. Stark had better have some answers for him, otherwise he'd tear the surface world apart, and let no 'hero' stand in his way!

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

Faith sat bolt upright in the top bunk of the bunk-bed she shared with Xan as the klaxons roared. "What the hell!"

"You heard that right?"

"Not deaf," Faith jumped up and started pulling her SHIELD uniform on over the boxers and top she wore as a concession to Xan bein' able to sleep at night, "least ways at least not deaf when you're not talkin' 'bout Lord Of The Rings."

Xander pouted. "I still say you'd make a great Elven princess-."

Faith sighed. She'd been so worried 'bout Xander after his death, she'd decided he couldn't look after himself and insisted moving herself in with him to watch him. 'Course somewhere 'long the way she'd forgotten what an annoyin' dork he was. "Just get dressed Harris."

* * *

The Baxter Building

"What's up with the alert, Stretch?"

Reed looked over his shoulder to see his best friend leading his wife and brother-in-law into his control room. "We're under attack, I've put up our force fields, but I need more time to hack into the Sentinels."

"Why don't we just attack?" Johnny demanded.

"Because if we do, even if we win, wreckage will fall on the city killing thousands," Reed glanced at his wife. "Sue, please get into the Power Transfer, I need you to reinforce the shields while I hack the Sentinels."

"What you planning, Stretch?"

"I'm going to reprogram the Sentinels and send them over the Atlantic Ocean, then self-destruct them," Reed replied as he typed, eyes fixed on the screen in front of him, "now if you don't mind Ben."

"Sure," growled his best friend, "anythin' I can do?"

"Yes," Reed pointed to the screen to his left, "keep your eye on that screen, tell me when the reading gets under 50, 25, and then 10."

"What is it?" Johnny queried.

Sweat began beading on Reed's forehead as his fingers flew over the keyboard. He was grateful at least that according to his scans these were an early version of the Senitels, their antiquated operating system had more than a few trapdoors. "It's a measure of the force field integrity."

"50%."

Reed nodded at Ben's terse comment. The Sentinels' system might be ancient, but it was still going to be tight. He grunted as a firewall blocked his worm, fingers tapping at the keyboard as he adapted his code, then executed it again.

"Let me fly out there-."

"Stay," he interrupted, then re-focused on what he was doing. "There's too many to fight safely without massive causalities on the ground." He scowled as the code got stopped again at a password screen, turning to another screen he called up a hacking program and set it to work.

"Who do you think sent them?"

"One thing at a time, Johnny," he distractedly replied. "We'll worry about that when-." He grinned as his screen beeped and the worm continued on. "When we've gotten rid of them."

"25%."

"Okay," he nodded, heart skipping a beat as his worm hit another firewall, then breathed again when the worm worked its way through. "We're in!"

"10%."

"Just hold on!" Reed roared as he worked at the keyboard, furiously writing code. "Hold on, Sue!" He hit return then hissed a sigh of relief when the reworked code was acknowledged by the machines. "We've done it."

"Ohhh."

"Sis!"

He turned at Johnny's alarmed cry, guilt filling him as he saw his wife slumped in the machine that he'd invented, blood seeping from her nose, eyes closed. "Sue!" His body contorted and stretched, beating his brother-in-law to her. "Sue!"

"Stretch!" Ben's roar shook the room. "We weren't the only ones attacked, your screen's going mad, there's attacks all over the world!"

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

The klaxons were deafening in the helicarrier's crowded, chaotic corridor. "Xan!" Faith yelled over the melee. "We need to stay together." Faith grabbed a passing man's arm. "Hey, what's goin' on!"

"Sentinel attack!" the man snarled before pulling away. "We're at battle stations."

"Sentinels?" Faith glanced towards Xander for clarification.

"As I remember it, Sentinels were robots invented by Dr. Bolivar Trask and programmed to hunt and capture or kill mutants. There's been several types of them over the years, manufactured by various military and paramilitary groups, but typically they're three stories tall, can fly, fire energy blasts, and detect mutants. They're bad news, real bad-."

"What the -!" Faith interrupted as something hit the ship, wrenching it 30 degrees to the left and flinging anyone in the corridor into the wall. "Fuck!" Faith cursed as her head smashed into the wall, stars briefly igniting before her eyes. A second or so later, the Helicarrier flopped back into position, but outside, Faith could hear the sound of a battle.

"Yeah," Faith shakily replied as she pulled herself up then helped Xander to his feet. "I'm gettin' that."

* * *

X-Mansion

Wolverine glanced up as Beast bounded into the kitchen. "A great discord is approaching apace."

"Eh?" Wolverine as always struggled to understand the verbose geneticist.

"We're under attack," Hank explained. "Sentinels according to my scanners."

"Ah hell," Wolverine felt his blood begin to burn. Sentinels, the S.S. of the mutant world. Unlike the battles with Magneto, Sinister, and Apocalypse, these weren't the monsters of the mutant world, but monsters created by men to hunt them. "Get Prof and the students into the basement, I'll rally the teams, and don't take any arguments from Charlie boy."

"As always you give me the most onerous of tasks," Beast grunted before ambling out.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm weeping on the inside," Wolverine muttered as he raced out to rally the troops.

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier

"Come on!" Faith dragged Xander behind her. "We gotta do something!"

"Do what?" Xander yelled back at her. "I'm a nerd, but even I don't know how to operate a S.H.I.E.L.D. Defence Matrix, do you?"

Faith scowled at her companion. Hell, she barely understood what he'd said, much less know what one was, but she wasn't about to admit that. "What do you suggest?" Faith snarled. "'Cause I ain't sittin' 'round knitting and shi-, fuck!" Faith flew backwards, crashing into the man stood behind her, knocking them both to the ground as an explosion rocked the ship, flames shooting out as a door flew off the right wall and crashed into the left wall opposite.

"Shit," Faith looked towards Xander as she pulled him to his feet, her head still ringing, "sounds like there's people in there."

"Yeah," Xander got that determined, protective look that secretly made her gooey inside, "we best see if we can get anyone out of there."

* * *

California, West Coast Avengers Mansion

She-Hulk scowled helplessly as she watched Spider-Woman, Wonder Man, and War Machine fly up into the air, battling the Sentinels flying towards their base while she and the ground-bound Avengers were stood looking impotently up. She-Hulk's lips pulled up in a savage smile when one of the Sentinels flew under a blast from Rhodey's shoulder cannons.

A manoeuvre that moved it into her range.

Even as she thought that she was moving, knees bending as she pushed up and into the air, chill winds tugging at her as she flew hundreds of feet into the air, her fist swinging back, held ready. The monster's head began turning back to her, perhaps alerted by its proximity alerts.

But then her fist was crunching through its steel's head, tearing through it with a wrecking ball's force as she devastated it.

God, hitting things could be so therapeutic at times.

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier Bridge

Energy crimsoned from the embattled Helicarrier, shredding through a Sentinel even as power arced from another flying robot to crash into their ship, igniting a fire, smoke billowing. Yet more crimson surged from their ship, ripping another Sentinel from the air, scorched wreckage plummeting to the ocean below. A cacophony of sirens, screams, and shouts filled the Helicarrier as it shuddered under the barrage of attacks, fire and smoke streaming from it as it drunkenly listed.

"Sir!" Fury's Defences Officer let out a cry from the desk he was sat behind. "The last of the Sentinels is out of our sky!"

Fury nodded. "Well done everyone, you all performed -."

"Sir!" The Operations Officer interrupted. "Three of our four primary engines have been damaged, the fourth is struggling to do all the work, but it'll give way soon."

Ah, hell, Fury groaned inwardly, just when he thought things were starting to go his way, Murphy came up and mooned him. "Maximum power to the reserve stablisers!" he snapped. "And I want those engines working as hard as they can!" Fury looked towards the Ancillary Officer. "What about the life-pods?"

The Ancillary Officer shook her head, face pale beneath her healthy tan. "Sir, port pods were wiped out by an energy blast, starboard pods are impassable thanks to fires in the corridors leading to them, and the stern ones are reading as damaged, unable to fire thanks to the floor above them collapsing."

Fury's stomach dropped. There was only one thing he could do, hitting the emergency intercom, he began recording a desperate S.O.S.

* * *

Attilan

Black Bolt stepped out of his people's globed city, baleful eyes examining the robots flying towards his home. The robots had ignored first their calls for clarification about their intentions, then when their hostility had become apparent, had ignored their warnings to withdraw.

And so it had come to this.

Black Bolt opened his mouth and spoke, the most dangerous voice in the universe said just one word, but it was enough. "Go."

Sonic power roared from his mouth, tearing through the rippling, shimmering air to encompass the flying robots. Every wire short-circuited as metal curled and buckled under the force of his all-powerful voice, the robots disintegrating and plunging to the ground.

Black Bolt nodded and strode back into his city to be met by his queen. "I have put calls through to the humans, my Lord Blackagar."

Black Bolt nodded at Medusa's words. If the humans did not have satisfactory answers for what had occurred here, then he would have more words to say.

The sort of words that razed entire cities.

* * *

Stark Tower

Iron Man glared as he pulled on his suit, the reports of attacks coming in over his helmet's system, crackling announcements of ambush after ambush coming in from the wired-in information system. "This is S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ," he froze at Fury's fraught voice, "we're going down over the Atlantic Ocean, our co-ordinates are-."

"I'm coming Nick," Stark launched himself out of the open twentieth floor window, the computers in his suit already hacking into the plummeting Helicarrier, looking for someway to compensate for the loss of power and re-route damaged systems, "just hold on!"


	17. Chapter 17

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (17/?)**

S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier

"Come on, come on." Faith shot worried looks at the smoke-blackened window in-between pulling at the harness strapping the unconscious gunner into his seat while Xander beat at the flames engulfing the gun-port in a vain attempt to buy them some time. "Yes!" Faith exulted as the straps finally snapped, the gunner slumping into her arms.

CRACK.

"Uhh, uhh." Faith groaned as she looked back towards the window, noting the cracks spreading across it, "Xan, we gotta hustle."

"Yeah," Xander nodded as he continued wafting his jacket at the leaping flames, "after you."

Faith glared across the smoke-filling port and opened her mouth to argue, then realised that could waste time they didn't have and wouldn't change her mule-headed companion's mind. "Five by five," Faith slung the unconscious man over her shoulder and backed her way out of the gunnery station, eyes watering as the smoke stung them. Faith gulped in air as she reached the corridor and dumped the unconscious S.H.I.E.L.D agent on the ground.

"Xan," Faith wheezed as she ducked through the doorway, "I'm out! Get your ass out!"

"On my-."

WOOSH!

Faith's eyes widened as she heard the window shatter and felt the wind gust out of the room. "Like hell!" Faith snarled as she saw Xander be dragged away from the door and towards the shattered window. Faith winced at the white-hot heat radiating from the door as she snatched a hold of its frame before leaning into the room, and grabbing hold of Xander's forearm. Tears streamed from her eyes and her ears roared as she ignored the tremendous forces tugging on her straining muscles to yank her arm back and fling Xander out of the room. The moment he fell on his ass in the corridor, Faith retreated out of the engulfed gun-port and slammed her fist into the door's control panel, then fell to her knees as the door slid shut.

"Oh fuck," Faith rasped, her throat and lungs aching as she gulped in sweet air, "oh fuck."

"Well," Xander coughed, "that was fun."

"Fun?" Faith shot her friend a stunned look. "You really, really need to get out more."

* * *

Stark scowled as he flew towards the listing helicarrier, smoke and fire engulfing it.

He'd do his best to help, but he had to be a realist, the helicarrier weighed multiple times more than his suit could lift, the best he could hope to do was slow the helicarrier's descent for long enough for other help to come.

Although given what he was hearing over his headset, news reports and assistance requests coming in by the second, he didn't have a clue where that assistance would come from. He grimaced as he flew under the falling ship, and grabbed a hold, pushing up with all his might. "Ignore all safety systems," he tersely ordered, "and direct all emergency power to systems now!"

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier Bridge

"Sir!" The Operations Officer spun around in her chair, eyes gleaming and emerald eyes gleaming with excitement. "The rate of our descent is decreasing."

"Yeah," Fury nodded, "I'm getting a message through from Iron Man, he's under us." He raised a hand to quell his officers' growing excitement. "He's only able to slow us. On his own, he won't be enough, so let's use the time he gives us. Everyone work on the stabilisers and engines, and double-fast people!"

* * *

"Systems failure estimated in two minutes, thirty seconds."

Stark gritted his teeth as sweat streamed down his face, the countdown to his imminent demise filling him with an increasing despair. "Fear not fellow Avenger," a deep voice rumbled, "Beta Ray Bill and I are at hand."

"Thor!" Stark's wounded heart leapt when the Asgardian god and the Korbinite both flew into view and took up positions at far ends of the v-shaped carrier, bracing the ship.

"Just so," the muscle-corded blond nodded, "if you'll fly aside us, Beta Ray and I will guide the carrier to the ground, away from any city."

* * *

"Wow," Xander's solitary eye widened as he fireman-carried one of the men they'd rescued out of the burning craft, Faith carrying the other two across her shoulders, the arid smoke making them both wheeze and their eyes water, "that's Thor." Faith stared with interest at the towering figure Xander was looking towards, "a real actual god. This is so cool! I have gotta get his autograph."

"Screw his autograph," Faith drooled and licked her lips as she ravenously eyed the blond muscle-mountain. "I wanna his phone number." Faith glanced at her companion. "They have phones in Asgard, right?" Xander stared at her. "Hey, you're always at me to make connections, I could always connect with that lucky stud-muffin."

Xander continuing staring at her as they made their way over to the still being set-up field hospital. "B…but he's a god!"

Faith's hackles rose as she eye-balled her Watcher. "You sayin' he's too good for me?"

"No," Xander gulped, "but he'll be like a thousand times stronger than you. You can't possibly," Xander reddened, "you know."

"What?" Faith grinned and snorted as she realised what her blushing companion was hinting at. "Yeah maybe not, but what a way to go." After dropping the injured men off at the hastily constructed field hospital, Faith winked at Xander. "So how do I look?"

Xander's solitary eye bulged at the question that terrifies all men. "Ehh, uhh," especially when she was the questioner apparently, "you've got blood and smoke all over your clothes and soot all over your face."

Faith's nose wrinkled, 'kay that probably wasn't good. Unless… Faith brightened. "He's into war and shit right?" Xander nodded slightly. "This'll be like lingerie for him, later Xan." Xander's mouth opened and shut as she strutted towards the god, hips rolling in the way that had been gettin' her what and who she wanted for over a decade.

* * *

S.H.I.E.L.D Bridge

Several of the walls had collapsed, others were scorched, and not all the equipment still worked, but it was still his bridge. Fury scowled as he fielded call after call from frightened government minister after frightened government minister while taking casualty and damage reports from his subordinates.

What he was reading was calamity after calamity. Euromind and S.W.O.R.D. had both been utterly destroyed as had several other S.H.I.E.L.D outposts, Wisdom of England's M.I.-13 and Gentry of Canada's Department H had both died in attacks on their offices. However that was just the start, The New Warriors and Thunderbolts had utterly been destroyed, while a number of other teams including the X-Men, Native Pride, Britain's M.I.-13 and Russia's Winter Guard had all suffered losses. All in all, there'd been fifty attacks across the world and aimed not just at the super-human community but at crippling conventional forces and communication systems.

And that wasn't even considering the thousands of civilians who'd died.

* * *

Atlantis

"Hello Namor."

Namor spun around to face his fellow Illuminati member. "Strange," he growled. "Given what's just happened coming here is not wise, not wise at all."

Strange looked impassively back at the seething monarch. "It's because of what just happened I'm here, he replied. "It wasn't an attack on you." He muttered a quick spell that displayed images from attacks across the globe. "It's an attack on the super-human community as a whole, over four dozen attacks in over a dozen different nations. America itself suffered half a dozen attacks on S.H.I.E.L.D, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and the X-Men."

"And what is behind these attacks?"

Strange shook his head. "I don't know."

"And what is their motivation?"

Strange shook his head. "I don't know."

"It seems the Sorcerer Supreme is lacking in information," Namor glared. "And how did they get these robots? Do they have more?"

"I don't know," Strange raised a hand as Namor opened his mouth. "Look, I need you to come to the surface with me-."

Namor shook his head. "My place is with my people."

Strange's disappointment bit deep. "Splitting us up might be what the attacker wanted!"

"Perhaps," Namor stared steadily at him. "And perhaps if I leave here, hotter heads will persuade my people into an ill thought-out attack on the surface."

"As you wish." Strange nodded. It was hard to believe that there could be hotter heads than Namor, but for once the Sub-Mariner's arguments had a certain grounding in logic. "Then I'll leave you, I have other places to visit, other monarchs to appease."

* * *

Xander watched dry-mouthed as Faith strutted out of the field hospital, mesmerised by her behind's erotic bounce. Forget her fists, Faith's ass should be registered as a deadly weapon. Shaking himself, he chuckled as he looked towards the Asgardian and wondered if centuries of life had readied him for Faith.

He decided the answer was almost certainly not. After all why should Thor be any different from any other man Faith had steam-rollered? The smile died on his face as he looked around the hospital noting the wounded and the mutilated. Suddenly things didn't seem so funny any more.

Suddenly needing fresh air, Xander hurried out of the hospital and towards a relatively isolated spot, away from the hustle and bustle of the helicarrier's evacuation. Once outside, he took long, deep calming breaths, forcing the images he'd seen away, the burns, the mutilated, the dismembered, the smells he'd smelt, and the screams he'd heard. "Jesus," he shook his head. "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye."

"We should know, shouldn't we?" Blood freezing, Xander spun around to face the voice's hauntingly familiar voice. The one-eyed carpenter grinned cockily. "You've got nothing to say to yourself?"

"You can't, how-."

The First's all too familiar laugh cut through him like a knife. "Oh Xander, don't you ever pay attention? Remember, you died." The First's predatory smile widened. "Just like Kendra did," the First changed into the black Slayer, smiling slightly at Xander's pained gasp, "and that little tramp of a Slayer you're trailing after now will."

"No, she won't," Xander feebly protested.

"Oh I'm sorry," the First grinned. "Don't like this body? Would you prefer this?" Xander's belly twisted and his throat dried as The First changed into Anya. His mouth opened and closed as he tried and failed to think of a flippant quip.

Suddenly his friend was by his shoulder, eyes like black ice as she bristled defensively. "Why don't you get the fuck away from him?"

"Or what Faithie?" Xander breathed again as the First turned into a micro-skirted, older and brown-haired version of his friend. "Always with the gutter-mouth." The First laughed huskily as she looked towards Xander. "No wonder you always get the dregs."

Xander grabbed Faith's shaking with rage forearm, willing her to calmness. "Like mother like daughter eh Charity?" Faith rasped.

The First's full lips curled into a disdainful sneer. "You little bitch, you took the best years of my life."

"You're not Faith's mom, or me, or Kendra, or Anya," Xander forced out the last name. "So why not cut out the dime-store act and tell us why you're here."

"Oh to thank you," the First's sneer remained untouched. "Why else would I bring your loved ones to see you? After all if it wasn't for you interrupting the spell I'd fed to the Montreal Black Thorn, it wouldn't have punched a hole through to this dimension."

"No," Faith let out a moan and shook her head, chestnut mane snapping furiously. "You're lying!"

"Would I?" The First giggled. "It took time, but I am immortal. I simply fed you the Black Thorn's location through an informant while also feeding the Black Thorn a spell that he thought would resurrect his patron and bring him back to your home dimension, but in fact would punch a hole through reality and piggy-backed me here on you. Now I'm here," the First giggled. "Now I'm here, all I need to do is unleash the hordes and slaughter half the world's population and I'll recorporealise. Then this dimension will be mine."

"We stopped you once and we'll do it again," Xander's defiance came out as a squeak.

"And how will you do that?" The air gusted from Xander's lungs, his knees almost buckling, as the laughing woman materialised into a skyscraper-high monster covered in leathery scales, man-sized high spikes trailing up its back and sitting on its highway-wide shoulders. Its long, thick arms ended at the knees of its bowed legs and ended in long, spindly claws that looked capable of tearing a tank apart. Its head was the size of a 4 * 4, a trio of glowing golden eyes set between its curved three foot long horn and its cavernous maw filled with dagger-length teeth and down-hanging tusks in its corners. "Even now my agents and I are unleashing the horde that will destroy this world's heroes and recorporealise me. Then this dimension will be mine!"


	18. Chapter 18

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (18/?)**

Baghdad, Iraq

The First smirked as he led his companions down into the tunnel, its subterranean shadows retreating before his companions' torches. Their flight from the pacific to the middle east had taken some hours, time that had passed oh too slowly for him. He could of course been here in an instant, but he needed his companions' assistance to open the pathway, besides it had given his allies time to amass here.

And he'd even had time to pay a visit to his fellow inter-dimensional travellers. He did so hope they survived the initial slaughter. He'd like to thank them personally for their part in what was to come.

"Over twenty thousand years ago, Kull of Valusia led a great army into battle on this very land. They were accompanied by the greatest conclave of mages this world had ever seen, The August Esteemed, an amalgamation of The Gloved Knowledge, The Darkening Sunrise, The Ever-Bright Dawn, and many other magical brother and sisterhoods, too numerous to list, dark and light allied together for once, a momentous occasion to be sure. Together they fought a mighty battle here, at the world's mystical apex, matching their powers against demonic powers."

He shivered at the coppery-tasting memories. The blood that had been spilt here still stained the sand and the pain and misery inflicted here still hung in the air. "While the warriors fought and died in their tens of thousands, the mages made a sacrifice too. They cast a spell, the greatest spell ever cast in this dimension, a spell that not only tore magic from themselves but from the world itself, ensuring that theirs would be the last generation where mages of their power numbered in their hundreds not in their tens. This magic was the fuel of a further spell that forced the Old Ones of your dimension into a prison called Kull's Eye. A cage impregnable except for one from the dimension that the Old Ones were locked in. Namely mine."

"Where's this cage?" The Taskmaster queried. "I can't see nothin'."

The First smiled. "Of course you can't," it replied, eyes fixed on the glowing cage filling the vast cavern before them," as I said the cage is only accessible or visible to one of my dimension."

"Yeah that's great," growled Crossbones. "But you're whatdoyoucallit, incorporeal. How you gonna open it?"

The First nodded. "Good point. However the cage can either be physically unlocked or be unlocked from the inside, by someone from my dimension entering it. And so," he stepped through the shimmering bars, "it's open."

* * *

"Jesus," Faith let out a strangled breath. "A visit from the First is always fun."

Xander raised an eyebrow. "You've had one before?"

"Yeah," Faith nodded, "the First had the Mayor do a mind-fuck back in Sunnydale. Not the best ten minutes of my return." Faith shuddered. "''Specially as it ended with me in bed with Robbie. You?"

Xander shook his head, mouth opening. "I guess I wasn't important enough." Faith scowled, she hated it when Xan talked himself down like that. Xander looked around. "Why isn't the camp freaking out about the giant demon? I know this world is more used to this sort of thing, but even so…."

"Nah," Faith shook her head. "As I remember it, the First can choose who it's seen by. It wanted to freak just us out."

"Mission accomplished," Xander muttered.

Faith nodded, hawked and spat on the ground. "I'd say."

Xander glanced at her. "Huh, thanks for coming to help me."

"Hey," Faith half-smiled. "We're a team, right?"

Xander smiled back. "Yeah."

Faith pursed her lips. "We should tell someone what the First said."

"Sir, Madam." A SHIELD agent hurried over to them.

"Hear that Xan?" Faith cracked a forced smile. "I'm a madam!"

"Had my suspicions," Xander nodded towards the agent. "Sorry for the interruption, she does that a lot."

"Yes sir," the SHIELD agent, who had to be a couple of years older than them at least, glanced from one of them to the other and back again. "SHIELD Two has arrived." The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent looked towards a gargantuan helicarrier now hovering and casting a shadow over the camp. "Director Fury has requested you join him."

Faith glanced towards Xander for guidance. After a second her friend nodded. "Sure," Faith agreed. Even if she thought they shouldn't, they were kinda out-numbered and out-powered. 'Sides, if dumbass wanted to go in, she had to follow and keep him safe.

Responsibility was a bitch.

The two of them followed the agent through the camp and to one of the ramps leading up into the steel-grey helicarrier. The moment they were inside, they were met by a black, grey-haired man with box-shoulders who returned the junior agent's salute before looking towards them and nodding. "I'm G.W. Bridge, follow me." The thick-set black set off, Xander and Faith trailing behind.

"Why are we here, sir?"

"Fury wants you on the bridge," Bridge replied. The African-American glanced over his shoulder. "By the way, congratulations on your actions today. According to reports, you rescued no less than five agents. There's talk of commendations."

"Eh," her friend predictably blushed, then shrugged. "It was nothing."

"Speak for yourself," Faith interrupted with a smirk. "Medals are always good." Faith glanced towards their escort and added conspiratorially. "I like shiny."

"She's like a magpie," Xander added.

"Yeah," G.W. Bridge glared at each of turn in time before looking at the bridge entrance. "Wait here, I'll tell Fury you are here."

* * *

"Hill, my neck's itching," Fury growled into his microphone, "it's telling me that something's bad coming. What happened a few hours ago is just the start. I want our forces spread out."

"Spread out how?" Hill queried, the woman's voice having her typical business-like tone.

"Have our mobile units doing that, constantly moving between the major population centres, I've already requested that the X-Men and X-Force temporarily move out to Chicago, the New Mutants and X-Factor move out to Miami, and the Defenders cover Washington, the Young Avengers over to Detroit, while Native Pride shift their attention to Phoenix. West Coast Avengers are to be split between Frisco, Diego, and Angeles. I want you to get Starfox, 3-D Man, Blazing Skull, Demolition-Man, Force, Thundra, and Jack Flag over to California to reinforce them. I've got Fontaine to co-ordinating with the world's governments ensuring their leaders are moved to safety and that the media aren't panicking everyone, she's also advising them to ground all civilian flights, and Dugan running co-ordination between global teams."

"The other teams remain where they are?" Hill queried.

"Yeah, that's the long and short of it until we have more information," Fury replied.

"They're here."

Fury looked up at Bridge's growl and nodded. "'Kay," he glanced towards his mike. "Hill, signing off now. I'll be ringing back later to check how things are progressing."

Fury looked around his bridge and then at the bridge's first mate. "I want us airborne and over the Atlantic ocean in ten, I'll be in the conference room." Fury looked towards Strange, Stark, Beta Ray Bill, Thor, Harris, and Lehane. "Gentlemen, lady-."

"That's you in case you were wondering." Harris muttered to Lehane.

"I was actually," Faith admitted with a far too sweet smile, "I thought for a second he was talkin' to you."

Fury raised an eyebrow. These were two of their world's champions? Their world must have really feeble menaces. "I'm afraid I must return and tend to Asgard's defences-."

"Shame," Faith muttered, her dark eyes devouring the blond Asgardian.

Thor shot the Slayer a look that was best described as bemused before looking back towards Fury. "But I will leave Beta Ray with you to represent Asgard's concerns and defences."

Fury glanced at the Asgardian and nodded briefly. "Okay, well thanks for your help." It wasn't as if the Asgardian were under his command, as much as he might wish it.

"Farewell," the man-mountain nodded before striding out.

Fury glanced towards his other guests. He didn't much trust Strange or Stark either. Some instinct told him they and others, Xavier and maybe a couple more, were up to something. "If you'll follow me." He lead them into the room dominated by a long table in the centre and a wall monitor behind the head of the table. "Please, take a seat," he instructed as he turned on the monitor and set it to display a map of the globe with the attacks marked on it. "Fifty Sentential attacks in seventeen nations, including Atlantis, Attilan, and the US. Loss of life is said to number in the tens of thousands, S.H.I.E.L.D's operational capacity is down by twenty percent, the New Warriors and Thunderbolts were both massacred while Native Pride, X-Men, Winter Guard, and M.I.-13 have all suffered losses."

The outer-dimensional travellers looked shocked, Strange and Stark were ashen grey. It was however Beta Ray Bill who broke the silence. "Who is behind these atrocities?"

"The First," Strange said. "It was him who knocked me out, but he had help. First he appeared as my dead brother, then while I was distracted I was telepathically attacked by Blackheart, and as I was fighting him off, Mordo, Scratch, and Loki attacked me magically."

"Damn," Faith husked, "they weren't taking any chances with you were they?"

Xander raised his hand. "Um, the First just contacted me outside here."

"Oh?" Strange looked towards Harris. "What did he say?"

Fury listened as the one-eyed man babbled out a reply. "What I don't get," Faith spoke after the man had finished, "is why he's so concerned with us. Yeah, we're from the same dimension, but this place has got way heavier hitters than us." Faith pointed at Beta Ray Bill. "Mr. Ed over there for one."

Beta Ray Bill looked around as if expecting someone to be stood behind him. "Who's Mr. Ed?"

Fury coughed into his hand as he fought back a laugh. The beautiful Bostonian was many things, but she certainly wasn't diplomatic. "Oh of course," Strange shook his head. "I have it."

"Don't give it to me," the Slayer sniffed. "I get 'nough fleas off him." Faith looked towards Harris and winked.

Strange looked to Fury. "I assume your physics are tracking any disturbances on an astral level?"

Fury stared at the Sorcerer Supreme for a long second. Fuck, he hated this mystical mumbo-jumbo, telepaths, mages, witches, demons. Give him a HYDRA plot any day of the week, and twice on Sunday, over this bullshit. "Yeah," he finally replied with a curt nod. "They've been pulling double duty recently."

"And have they reported any disturbances?" Strange continued.

"Give me a second," Fury pressed at the keyboard before him then nodding slowly. "Yeah, thirty minutes ago, two physics on the Middle East desk haemorrhaged while the third managed to file a report on some sort of disturbance in Baghdad before passing out."

"Ah," Strange sighed and grimaced. "I was afraid of that, Kull's Cage."

"Kull?" Xander queried. "Like Kevin Sorbo Kull?"

Fury shuddered. "Terrible film." He shrugged when everyone looked at him. "I

grew up in the thirties, reading my brother's hand me down pulps. Film was nothing like the character." Stark cleared his throat, prompting Fury back on track. "Yeah, anyway. How can there be fiction about a historical character like Kull?"

"Legendary Impact," Strange replied. "Howard was a low-level physic who 'felt' the presence of historical figures and 'remembered' their stories and wrote them, probably the same thing with Bran Mak Morn and Conan the Cimmerian. Probably didn't even realise it himself."

"We're getting away from the point," Stark interrupted, the alcoholic's tone purposeful. "Kull's Cage?"

"Kull's greatest battle and achievement was the leading of the armies into a battle that forced the Old Ones from this world and into a magically-created dimensional prison called 'Kull's Cage'. This prison only either be opened from the other dimension or," Strange's gaze fell on them, "by someone from that dimension."

Faith groaned. "Oh this world is just so much fun."

Fury smirked slightly at the Slayer's dismay before turning his attention towards Stark. "This sounds like a job for our resident nut-job. Where's the Sentry?"

Stark winced. "We don't know, the night they," the billionaire glanced at Xander and Faith, "arrived here, the Sentry went missing, he was last recorded as flying past our Jupiter satellite. At first we thought it was a coincidence but now we're not sure."

"Great," Fury leaned back in his chair for a second before speaking. "Are there any special conditions, rituals, whatever required to operate this Cage?"

"No," Strange shook his head. "They have to be from that dimension, be in the prison's immediate vicinity and will it shut. That's all."

"That's all he says," Faith shook her head and sighed.

"Strange," Fury gathered his thoughts. "We'll need you to brief us fully on the cage, but first if we can't get a hold of Sentry, we're going to have to put together a team to get them to Baghdad and through whatever army the First has amassed."

"Hey, can I name the team?"

Faith shook her head again and glared at her companion. "Oh my gawd, you have literally no shame."

Xander stared back at the Slayer. "Well I've already thought of your codename."

"Yeah?" Faith raised an eyebrow. "I can't believe I'm askin' but what?"

Xander stared at the Slayer's chest. "Twin Peaks."

Fury bit back a laugh when the Slayer's glare intensified. "As I recall, your codename should be 'Stumpy'."

Fury sighed. "I need you two to save the world? We're in even more trouble than I thought."

"Terrifying isn't it?" Strange sniffed.


	19. Chapter 19

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (19/?)**

"Tigra! War Machine! I want you on my left!" She-Hulk looked around, the Sentinels swarming around them. "Spider-Woman! Wonder Man! You on my right!" She-Hulk glanced towards the gigantic black man behind her. "Golia-," her eyes widened as she spied a Sentinel gliding in behind her friend. "BILL!"

A blaze of light enveloped her friend, his body twisting as his screams tore through the air as the energy blast ripped through him, the stench of smouldering flesh twisting She-Hulk's belly as Goliath crashed to the ground, scorched organs spilling out to soak the ground.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director Hill was just on the intercom."

She-Hulk blinked at Wonder Man's voice, tearing her eyes away from the corpse laid in their charter house's basement, ice packed around him. "Yes," she was surprised how steady her voice was, "what did she want?"

"According to her, Fury expects more trouble, and wants us to cover all of California."

She-Hulk glared at her team-mate, on one level she knew he was just the messenger. On another, she just didn't care. "Oh?" she snapped. "And how are we supposed to do that?" She glanced towards the enormous corpse. "We're already down one man. Two actually when you consider Hercules has returned to defend Olympus."

"I know," Wonder Man's soft tone failed to soothe her. "But Hill said they're sending reinforcements," Wonder Man peered at her over his sun-glasses. "Starfox, Thundra, 3-D Man, Blazing Skull, Demolition-Man, Gargoyle, Force, and Jack Flag."

"Oh," She-Hulk continued to stare at the corpse before her then shook her head. "It doesn't replace Bill though."

"I'm pretty sure they're not coming here to replace him," Wonder Man said.

"Yeah," She-Hulk nodded, suddenly grateful she didn't have to think about the condolences letter to Bill Foster's parents. "I want you to take charge of one team with Starfox, Spider-woman, and Tigra, and go to San Diego. I'll take 3-D Man, Blazing Skull, and Thundra up to Frisco. Rhodey will take D-Man, Force, Gargoyle and Jack Flag to LA."

* * *

Captain America stared down bleakly at Battlestar and Free Spirit's incinerated corpses. After over half a century of losses, yet the new ones still hurt, still bit as deeply as the first.

In a strange way he was grateful for that, it acted as proof that his humanity remained more or less intact after six strife-filled decades of war and crime-fighting. Captain America crouched down before the deceased duo. So many years had passed, so much death, pain, and misery.

"Steve," Captain America looked over his shoulder to see Winter Soldier stood there, his one-time protégée looking as impassive as he always did ever since his escape from Lukin's grasp. "Fury's just been on, he's expecting more trouble."

"Right." Captain America rose, forcing his shoulders to straighten as he stared unflinchingly ahead. Once again, duty would have to become before the considerations of loved ones.

* * *

Sunspot.

Hepizah.

Rogue.

Boom Boom.

Cannon-Ball.

Mercury.

Grief threatened to swamp over Xavier as he stared at the corpses lined out in front of him, knuckles whitening as he gripped his wheelchair's arms, unable to pull his eyes away. How many of his students and friends must die, how much hatred must they endure.

Was it worth it? Was it worth the heartache, the sacrifice, the pain? The blood and tears?

Except what was the alternative? Become like Magneto and operate on an 'us and them' basis? Hide away? Run? Refuse to use their powers for the betterment of mankind?

No, he slowly shook his head. One strove to be the best, to do the best. After all, wasn't such striving what defined the human race, homo-sapien and homo-superior, at its apex.

"Professor?"

Xavier wheeled around to face Cyclops, forcing a smile, he nodded. "Yes, Scott?"

Cyclops stared at him for a second. "Fury was just on the radio, he seems to think this thing isn't over."

"I agree," Xavier replied, the attacks he'd heard about where too widespread to be an one-off, they had to be the first act of a much larger play.

"He wants to us to move the X-Men and X-Force to move out to Chicago, the New Mutants and X-Factor to Miami." Cyclops stopped. "But we're not going to."

"We're not?" Xavier stared back at the younger mutant.

Scott's jaw tightened. "They sent Sentinels after us, Professor. Sentinels, they're trying to split us up so they can strike again."

"No, Scott," Xavier sadly shook his head. There it was, the suspicion that caused a chasm between them and the normals. "The attacks were too wide-spread, not just restricted to mutants. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Heroes For Hire, and teams in other countries too were all attacked. This is something global."

"But aimed at us, they used Sentinels," Scott stubbornly commented.

"They attacked Atlantis and Attilan too," Xavier argued. "Namor apart, are they mutants too?"

"How do we know this?" Scott said. "Did S.H.I.E.L.D. tell you?"

"No," Xavier shook his head. "Strange told me, he's been to see both lands personally."

Scott sighed. "Alright, I'll get the teams ready."

Xavier smiled. "Thank you, Scott."

* * *

"You have returned from the mortal world, then." Odin rose from his throne. "Is it Ragnarok there too?"

"Perhaps not Ragnarok," Thor fell to one knee before his father and liege, the vast hall's bawdy revelry falling silent at his entry, expectant eyes falling onto him. "But something dire and yes it is afflicting Midgard. And it is not over yet."

"Warriors," Odin's voice thundered around the cavernous chamber, billowing the tapestries fastened to the walls. "You have heard my son's words. It is time for us to fight again!"

A roar went up from the massed warriors, shaking the hall. And then they rose and hurried from the chamber, their boots echoing like a herd of charging bulls.

"Ha," Odin let out an approving growl. "I've been alive untold centuries, but I never tire of watching our people ready themselves for battle." His father's face sobered, creases deepening. "Walk with me, boy."

"Yes father," Thor fell in beside his father.

"I smell it in the air boy," Odin's rumble travelled up out of his thick chest. "Trouble, danger, chaos, in the air."

"Loki's doing, perhaps?" Thor suggested.

"No," Odin slowly shook his head. "I know you have little love for your half-brother, and I have little patience left for his machinations, but not everything is his fault. Besides, what is happening here is perhaps beyond even his grasp."

"Who then?" Thor demanded.

"That is a question beyond my ken." Odin shrugged his wide shoulders. "Another Titan like Thanos? The Elder Gods? The Celestials? A force we have never heard of before? I notice Beta Ray did not return with you."

"I thought it best that he stay with the humans and aid them in any way he could," Thor replied.

"Perhaps that was wise," Odin nodded after a moment. "For what is coming may not be Ragnarok, but it will drown the nine worlds in blood." Odin stopped and looked towards him. "I will not be able to join this battle with you, the temptation will be too much." Thor nodded, understanding that his father referred to the Odinforce. Should it be unleashed in all its wrath, the cosmos would shake, and Midgard itself would be obliterated. "However if the enemy is as powerful and malignant as I fear, I may unleash the Odinforce to save reality."

Thor quailed inwardly at his father's words even as he kept an impassive expression. Did his sire truly believe the threat to be as great as that? "Let us hope it does not come to that."

"Indeed," Odin grunted before resuming their stride through Asgard's corridors, blazing braziers illuminating their way. "Your friend Hercules will have to defend Olympus too."

"The Olympians are not without their champions."

"Aye," Odin nodded, solitary eye glittering. "And their villains too."

* * *

Hercules glared balefully at the approaching figure, a towering figure with flashing eyes, grasping a single-bladed axe in one hand, and wearing a black breastplate embossed with a white skull, black leather plants, and a white feather plumed spangenhelm. Stepping forward, he blocked the thickly-muscled figure's path to their homeland. "Are you to be the first, Ares." Hercules hefted his mace and dropped into a crouch. "The first to taste my wrath?"

Ares' teeth flashed in a scowl. "Do not think to test me, brother. I am here as an ally, not an enemy."

Hercules raised an eyebrow. "An ally? In thousands of years, you've never stood by my side."

"In thousands of years," Hercules fought back a gasp when his brother turned his back to him, "we have never fought such horrors as we both sense approaching."

"Then," Hercules stepped up to stand aside his brother, "let us fight the sort of battle legends are made of us."

"Ha!" Ares glanced over the edge of the bridge leading to Olympus. "The day Ares and Hercules fought the terrors together, a day etched in infamy and blood! I'm looking forward to it!"

"Then let the legend begin," Hercules intoned, eyes searching for the monsters he felt sure were coming. "Let us write this day in the annals of history."

"Yes!" Ares roared. "Write it in our enemies' blood!"

* * *

Brisbane, Australia

The first thing the early-day commuters was the earth shaking beneath them, leading them to believe it was an earthquake, then they smelt it, a foulness pervading the air, burning the back of their throats.

And then the sky erupted, lightning sizzling out of the suddenly midnight-black sky to hit random buildings, cremating them in a half-second. A half second later, tentacles burst through the ground, snatching up stationary and mobile cars, and flinging them heedlessly around.

The end of the world had begun.

* * *

"Okay," Fury looked around the room, "first we need someone to lead this team. It's gotta be someone with experience of leading. I can't do it because I'm co-ordinating S.H.I.E.L.D operations." Fury looked towards Stark.

The billionaire shook his head. "Once we're finished here, I'm going back to the Avengers."

"Okay then," Fury starting tapping on his computer, doing a search of the hero database based on tactical skills. "Any suggestions Harris?"

"I suppose there's the Punisher?" Xander shrugged.

"Too unstable," Fury shook his head. "Frank has the training, but does not play well with others."

"Okay, then what about Cap?" Xander grinned. "Oh please, Cap."

"I'm kinda reluctant to take team leaders off their team-," Fury's eye narrowed as he peered at the computer screen. "I'll put a call into Winter Soldier though, he's got plenty of experience." Fury looked towards the computer screen. "Now, given the telepathic attack on Strange, clearly we need a telepath."

"Prof X is out 'cause of the legs," Harris offered. "We can't really trust Emma Frost," Harris sighed wistfully.

"What's up?" Fury queried.

"He's wonderin' if she really looks like Pamela Anderson in fetish wear," Faith replied for the Sunnydaler.

Stark smirked. "She does."

"Psylocke is up then," Strange commented. "She's the next most powerful telepath after those two we have easy access to and she has a significant physical offensive upside, I'll contact the UK."

"Next we'll need stealth in case we need to sneak around," Fury commented.

"How about Elektra?" Faith queried before smirking. "Even I like that chick."

Fury smirked. "Shame we don't," he shook his head. "She changes sides so often, she make our archivists dizzy."

"What about Sue Storm?" Xander commented. "I mean invisible is gotta be a plus, right?"

"You just wanna see if she looks like Jessica Alba," Faith accused with a snort.

"Nice thought, and she's doesn't," Stark commented.

"How about Blade?" Xander suggested. "There's not much he doesn't know about being sneaky?"

"Blade," Fury agreed as he made a note.

"Given we know there's a magical aspect to the First's forces, we should really have at least one of our own on board," Stark commented. "We could recruit Hellstrom, Voodoo, Shaman, Druid, or at a push, Wiccan, although I'm not sure he's experienced enough for a high-stakes play like this." Stark looked towards Strange. "Unless you'd do the job?"

Strange hesitated for a moment before nodding. "I've contacted Johnny Blaze, the Defenders can manage without me."

"Great," Fury nodded. "We'll also need a teleporter-."

"How about Nightcrawler?"

Fury shook his head at Xander's suggestion. "Not powerful enough."

"Cloak and Dagger?" Xander fired back.

"Just kids," Fury disagreed.

"Okay then," Xander's brow furrowed. "Devil-Slayer?"

"Yeah," Fury nodded, "Eric Payne could work. With Thor and Herc off defending their lands, we're going to have to find some more muscle," Fury commented. "Doc Samson's on this ship, he'll be in."

"As will I," Beta Ray boomed.

"Hoped you would," Fury nodded at the alien. He didn't much like trusting earth security to extra-terrestrial beings, but he'd be a fool to ignore either the alien's abilities or his character.

"What about Luke Cage?" Xander suggested.

Stark snorted and shook his head. "Good luck getting him to leave his team." Stark looked towards Fury. "I'll loan you Danvers though."

"Ms. Marvel it is then," Fury replied.

"Colossus?" Xander suggested.

"Good choice." Fury grimaced. "Except he was injured in the fighting."

"She-Hulk?" Xander queried.

"In this reality she's in charge of the West Coast Avengers," Stark replied.

"Yay for girl power," commented the Slayer.

"Speaking of which, how about She-Thing?" Xander suggested.

"Yeah, that'll be it," Fury agreed as he finished his notes. "Now how about strategy-." He looked around as alarms blared out. "What the hell is happening now?"

* * *

Xander gasped as the screen behind Fury's position came alive, displaying a barely credible fight scene. Grey scaled, winged dragons the size of buses surrounded their embattled helicarrier, flames shouting from their flared snouts, and malice gleaming into their luminous eyes. The helicarrier shook as its systems struggled to cope with the attack, energy blazing from it as its over-worked gunners fired blast after blast into the winged mastodons.

"Colonel," Xander looked towards Stark, the billionaire's armour back in place, "I notice your men at the front and rear are holding their own-."

"The bow and stern," Fury corrected.

"Whatever," Stark grunted. "Beta Ray can aid the gunners on the left side and I'll aid those on the right. You restrict your men to firing at close-range and we'll thin the dragons before they get to you."

Fury nodded. "Sounds good to me."

"I'll teleport myself outside the battle zone and see how many of these are coming," Strange volunteered.

"Damn," Faith grunted. "I just love feeling useless."

"Welcome to my life," Xander grunted.

"We have a battle to fight," Beta Ray pronounced. "Most glorious."

* * *

"Warning, hanger opening. Warning, hanger opening."

Beta Ray Bill allowed the speaker announcement to wash over him, the high altitude winds rushing in from the open hanger door likewise failing to bother him. Then he launched himself out of the door, the wind futilely whipping at him as he held Stormbreaker out in front of him.

Flames gusted out of the nearest dragon's gaping maw, engulfing him, but Beta Ray Bill ignored them to continue on his route, diverting from his path at the last second to fly to the winged serpent's left. Beta Ray backhanded Stormbreaker into the beast's forehead as the creature began turning toward.

Blood jetted from the creature's head as its skull imploded, the beast letting out a high-pitched caw as it spiralled out of the sky.

"Ugggh!" Beta Ray grunted as another dragon collided with him, the impact driving the air from him and knocking him back twenty feet. Reversing his momentum, he flew back at the roaring dragon, its bellows resonating in his ears. His eyes widened as the monster's long neck pulled back, its teeth glinting as it readied itself to strike.

Beta Ray threw himself to the right as the monster's head shot back forward, diving behind it to backhand swing his hammer into the beast's neck. The sound of the creature's neck breaking thundered through the air, the creature plummeting out of the sky.

He'd barely had a moment to take a breath when another monster launched itself at him, his arms snapped up to grab the creature around his head. Muscles writhing, he swung the leviathan into another creature and released, the impact's momentum sending both creatures directly into the path of a firing canon, jetting blood crimsoning the clouds behind the screaming beasts.

* * *

Faith let out a low whistle as she avidly watched the battle outside the ship, the still-sounding alarms almost deafening. "Beta Ray's kickin' ass and takin' names."

"Well he on a par with Thor, so he's one of the verse's most powerful beings," Xander commented from beside her. "Which makes him in the stratosphere as regards power."

"I'd say," Faith chuckled. "Hey, I was lookin' at Thor's hammer earlier, but what the hell, I might do my bit for alien-human relations, ya know?"

"Funny," Xander grated before rising and walking out.

Faith's brow furrowed as she looked up after her Watcher. "What is your fuckin' problem?" When Xander didn't turn, stop, or answer her, Faith rose and stormed after him, through the chaotic bridge, and into the corridor beyond. "Hey asshole, stop being such a fuckin' Buffy!"

That got Xander's attention, he spun on his heel to face her. "A Buffy?"

"Prissy, up yourself whiner, you know the type," Faith smiled tightly. "Hell you spent your high school years lusting after the type. What is your problem?"

Xander's single eye glared at her as he shook his head. "Don't do this."

"Hey!" Faith jabbed her finger into her friend's broad chest. "Don't put this on me, you're the one with a 'tude! What is your fuckin' problem!"

Xander's Adam's Apple bobbled up and down. "Leave it," he grated before starting to turn away from her.

"Fuck no!" Faith grabbed Xander's forearm and spun him around to face her. "You're gonna tell me just what's got a stick stuck up your ass."

"Ever since we got here, you've been pantin' after every hero in this dimension." Faith's mouth opened, but Xander continued over her. "Colussus, Blade, Thor, Daredevil, now Beta Ray, while treating me like nothing but a joke for knowing about this world! Pretty damn hypocritical1"

Faith let out a harsh laugh, its taste bitter in her mouth. If only he knew. "Why you want another taste?"

"Oh please," Xander scoffed. "Even if I did, you've made it clear you don't backtrack, and that's fine. But what I'd like is a little respect."

Faith rocked back on her heels, dark eyes widening. "Xan," Faith raised her hand to stroke the man's face only to drop it down at his hard eye. "Damn it, Xan. I do respect-," Faith licked her lips as she forced back the past's bitter-sweet memories. "You were the first guy whoever treated me as more than a piece of meat, you tried to reach me. Angel's my big bro, but you're my best friend, the guy I like to kidda 'round with."

"Faith," distress filled her friend's features, "I'm sorry-."

"The only reason I ain't back-tracked is 'cause," Faith took a breath. "I don't wanna risk the best friendship I've ever had. But-," Faith stepped forward, grabbed the back of Xander's head and pulled him towards her, "ah to hell with it!"

Xander's eye widened and his mouth began to open, but then her lips were against his, crushing them as she worked her tongue into his mouth.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **Thanks for all the reviews everyone, if you're enjoying this Marvel\BtVs xover, why not try my other Marvel\BtVS xover – 'Darker Reign', - .net/s/6695917/1/Darker_Reign

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (20/?)**

"That's the last of the dragons, gentlemen, thank you," Fury spoke into his mouthpiece. "You can come in." Dragons, Fury shook his head. Jesus, now they were fighting dragons. Turning his mouthpiece off, he spoke into the microphone, broadcasting throughout the helicarrier. "People, you have all performed magnificently during the last two attacks. However I've decided this ship is too much of a target while airborne, so I'm putting us down in Central Park. Helmsman, pilot a course and I expect a pillow-soft landing."

"Central Park?" Bridge rumbled a sour laugh behind him. "The Parks Commission are going to love you."

"The Parks Commission can kiss my hairy, All-American ass," Fury replied. "When we land I want you to organise perimeter guards, and break out the lethal ammunition."

"Eight groups of four, bathe the area in spotlight, and arm the cannons?"

"Sounds good to me."

"I'll get right on it." Bridge hurried towards the conference room exit.

"Sorry about that Doctor," Fury turned back to Strange. Here was another one he didn't trust, very powerful, brave, principled, and all that, but there was something indefinable that irked him. Maybe it was the sorcerer's sternly upper-class breeding, but more likely it was the sense that the magician had some hidden agenda.

However such things were of secondary importance next to the world-wide crisis.

"Of course," Strange nodded, "as a leader, the people under your command must be your priority."

"Yeah," Fury nodded, not bothering to argue. In his view, his priority was always his duty to his country. "You had any thoughts what we gonna do with the Slayer and her man if we get the other side of this miss?"

"Ah," Strange's brow furrowed. "I'm sorry, Colonel, but although their journey caused this current crisis, they can't be blamed, after all, they were tricked into it."

"You misunderstand me," Fury shook his head. In his estimation blaming the kids for this would be like blaming Mr. and Mrs. Hitler for getting together and having a house painter for a son. "They're a potential asset, and need to be utilised as such."

Strange listened as he talked then nodded. "It's an interesting idea and they certainly can't go back." Strange smiled at his querying look. "I have just about enough power to send them back, but doing so would permanently shred the wall between our two dimensions, leaving both sides vulnerable to attack from evils from either side. Something their dimension in particular would find difficult to cope with."

"Ah," Fury nodded. "Then-." His jaw clamped shut as the conference door flew open and Harris and Lehane walked back in. "As you heard we're heading in for landing at Central Park. From there, we'll start assembling the teams."

"I'll travel through the astral plane to Xavier, he can telepathically pass the message on to the others," Strange said. "Doc, Beta Ray, and ourselves are already here, but it'll take time for the others to get here. Once we've got Devil Slayer in, we can start teleporting people in, but until then we'll just have to hold tight."

"And hope the whole world doesn't go straight to hell while we're waitin'," Faith grimly commented.

"Yeah," Fury nodded. Sometimes in war, the hardest thing was the waiting.

* * *

Asgard

"You are quiet, Odinson."

Thor looked up from his crouch to see Heimdall stood over him. "I am concentrating on the battle ahead."

"Ha," Heimdall's laugh rumbled out of his chest. "That is not all you are concentrating on, you are thinking of the lives of your human friends. Your interest in them is bemusing my friend."

"Bemusing?" Thor smiled. "Yes I suppose it is. But rarely does a day go by when I do not thank the fates for my father having sent me to earth in mortal guise. Even the longest-lived of them are but a flicker of a candle's flame next to us. But in their short lives, they live with an intensity that us long lived can but dream of."

"They will need that intensity for the battles ahead," Heimdall soberly replied. "And warriors of no small renown in number aplenty."

Thor half-smiled as he thought of the Captain, T'Challa, Namor, and so many others he'd met. "They'll have them."

* * *

Phoenix, Arizona

Flames crackled from ruined buildings and smoke billowed into the sky, screams echoing throughout the ravaged city.

Jason Strongbow's eyes narrowed and jaw tightened as he witnessed the chaos engulfing Arizona's capital. Captain America had asked him to form Native Pride, a team consisting of Native American Metas several years ago, and if you were American, you didn't say no to Cap'. Since then, they'd faced slavers, cannibals, drug dealers, shamen, and various super-villans, but nothing compared to this.

Strongbow looked over his shoulder to his team-mates. First to catch his eye was the CEO of Firestar Enterprises, Thomas Firestar, aka Puma. Puma's eyes glinted in the half-light, the warrior's feline features were drawn as he watched the unfolding carnage.

To his right sat Red Wolf peered out from beneath his wolfshead, while beside him sat the broad-shouldered Wyatt Wingfoot. To Puma's left sat Echo and Risque, the motorbikes they were sat upon purring as they readied themselves for the fight ahead.

"Remember, leave the clean-up for police and emergency forces, we're strictly on seek and destroy," Strongbow growled. "Let's wipe this city clean of these demons."

"And remember," Firestar added, "this isn't a crime-fighting mission, this is war. No holds barred, no taking prisoners."

* * *

Houston, Texas

Captain America stared at his shield, heart tight in his chest. In his years he'd been a soldier, spy, and crime-fighter, and knew the difference between each. This wasn't stopping the latest in a long succession of AIM or HYDRA's nefarious schemes, this was stopping the entire world being slaughtered.

This was war.

Rising from his seat he walked out to where the surviving members of his friends were waiting.

Winter Soldier. His oldest friend, estranged through several decades of fighting on opposite sides through no fault of either of them.

The Falcon. The black man who'd always been steadfast and by his side, through good times and bad, no matter what.

US. Agent. A man who'd once taken his place, but now fought alongside him.

Americop. An efficient warrior and one whose bloody methods he frequently disapproved of, but his very ruthlessness meant he'd be invaluable in this upcoming battle.

Solo. Another man whose methods he often disapproved of, but another man whose unique skill set and talents would be needed tonight.

And of course there should be the others here, but they were dead. Forcing the pain he felt down deep, he spoke, his voice steady. "All of us have fought, most of us have served in the forces. Today we face a battle unlike any we have faced before. There can be no quarter given to our enemy today, no mercy given. Fight hard, fight smart, but most of all remember what we fight for. We fight not for any one nation or for any one political belief, but for the innocents, the defenceless." Cap turned as Devil Slayer materialised behind him. "James, you have another mission today. Good luck with it."

* * *

Atlantis

Namor strode back and forth, pride swelling his chest as he inspected his rigidly rowed troops. Six hundred warriors of the Royal Guard stood to attention in twenty lines of thirty, their spears, shields, and helmets all gleaming spotlessly. Despite the numbers massed in the room, you could have heard a feather drop, so disciplined was their still silence.

In his estimation the men and women in this room were the finest fighting force on earth. But then they would have to be to survive the coming onslaught. "Our reconnaissance posts report hordes of krakens, bahamuts, sea serpents, and trunkos are heading towards the city." Not a mutter escaped the listening soldiers. "You are the finest warriors in Atlantis and you will have the honour of being in the vanguard of its defence. FOR ATLANTIS!"

"FOR ATLANTIS!" His roar came back from a few scattered voices and then was picked up by others. "FOR ATLANTIS!" Soon the vast chamber was echoing to their bellows. "FOR ATLANTIS!"

* * *

Queens, N.Y.

Mossberg 590

Claymores.

Desert Eagles.

Kevlar vest.

MAC-10s

M67 grenades.

M84 stun grenades.

H&K G36.

Pepper spray.

Taser.

K-Bar knives.

M79 grenade launcher.

Frank Castle allowed himself a grim smile as he continued his inventory of his darkened van armoury. Normally he hunted criminal scum, the drug dealers, the slavers, and pimps.

Tonight though he hunted a different prey. Tonight, he picked up a Kevlar vest and started putting it on, tonight he went to war.

* * *

"Whoa!" Xander let out a gasp as the previously introduced Devil Slayer materialised with a man dressed in black with a cybernetic arm. "That's the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes, he fought with Cap all the way through the second world war, then he was brainwashed by the Russians-. Meeting him is just amazing-, owww!" Xander rubbed at the back of his neck where Faith had flicked him and glared at his new girl-friend. "Why did you do that?"

"Will you listen to yourself!" Faith hissed. "Damn it you piss me off sometimes. Acting like a damn fanboy!" Xander's mouth opened. "I've read the Watcher Diaries you doofus! How many times did you help save our world when you were runnin' with the Sunnydale Crew? Eight, ten times? How many times did you save it on your own? Twice? How many times have you helped save it with our team? Four, five times? You don't need to get gooey-eyed over anyone!" Faith's nose crinkled. "'Sides it makes a girl wonder if she's wastin' her time."

Xander's brow furrowed. "Wasting your time?"

Faith's full lips flew up in a smile, dimples deepening. "Homo-erotic much?"

"Hey!" Xander shook his head. "That's not-."

"Methinks the doofus doth protest too much," Faith winked.

Xander's mouth opened, but before he could defend himself from a suddenly classically-insulting Slayer, the door opened and Fury walked in. "Okay," the legendary world war II veteran growled. "Since we wanna conserve Payne's powers until you reach the battlefield, you'll be using a jet to get to Baghdad. I've loaded a briefing onto the jet's onboard computer. Major Davners," Fury glanced towards the statuesque blonde, "you'll be the pilot. Barnes, you're leading in the field." Fury looked around and nodded. "Good luck."

"Okay everyone," the leotard-wearing blonde rose and headed towards the door, hips swinging very hypnotically, "we're on the clock. People are dying and we're the only ones who can stop them."

"Harris get your eyes off that skank's ass, or I will pluck your other eye out too," Faith growled.

Xander glanced at the brunette and smirked. "And you were worried about me being homo-erotic."


	21. Chapter 21

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (21/?)**

The Council Of Sky-Fathers

Zeus' fists clenched. "The threat we face is too immense, we cannot leave it to others to fight! We must strike!"

"Hah," Odin's laugh rumbled out of his chest as he shook his head. "You know me, normally I love a good fight. But one has to pick them."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning," Odin directed his gaze to Ammon Ra, the Sky-Father of the Ogdoad, "we are beings of immense power, too immense for this world to withstand our combined power. Should we bring our power to bear we would shatter this planet. Even this system."

"Perhaps," agreed The Dagda, ruler of the Celtic gods, "but the alternative, the First let loose on the cosmos would lead to the extinction to all but the highest of life-forms, a death toll in the trillions."

"We cannot just stand by," Zeus concurred.

"No, that is not what I am suggesting," Odin shook his head. "This battle is too important for us to stand idly by."

"Then what?" queried Svarog, the Dievas sky-father's snowy-white moustache shaking.

"We allow this world's heroes and lesser gods to fight this war for us," Odin replied.

"But should they fall?" Ukko demanded.

"Then we step in and take up their mantle as the universe's protectors," Odin slowly conceded. "After all, what is the lives of six billion next to hundreds of trillions?"

Zeus glanced around the long table they were all sat around, Odin holding a breath that was not released until most, not all but most, of his fellow Skyfathers had nodded. Finally Zeus' gaze returned to him. "We wait," the Olympian confirmed. "But ready yourself, should worse come to worse, we will bring our strength to bear, and should it cost everyone on this planet their life, it will be a small price to pay for the end of the First."

* * *

Asgard

Thor glared imperiously around his city, then nodded in satisfaction as he saw his people lining the battlements. Their hawkish gazes peered out of hardened faces, ready for the latest battle in their city's bloody history.

Sensing a familiar and welcome presence behind him, he turned to face the brawny powerhouse stood there. "Brother Heimdall!" he boomed a greeting. "What do you see?"

"'Tis grave, mi'lord," Asgard's sentry replied. "All manner of trolls and monsters march towards Asgard, out-numbering us perhaps thirty to one and equipped with all manner of siege equipment – catapults, towers, battering rams, and mantlets."

Thor scowled at Heimdall's grave news. He could see no sign of these god-forsaken foes, but then he didn't have Heimdall's enhanced senses. "I would have your eyes, my friend."

"As you wish mi'lord," Heimdall nodded brusquely, square jaw clenched as he stepped forward and placed his callused hand on Thor's shoulder.

Thor gasped as his fellow Asgardian's vision flooded into his mind, enabling him to see the army marching towards his home.

The ground rumbled under the march of tens of thousands of snarling, grotesquely shaped monsters, their gnarled hands grasping all manner of weapons and their eyes filled with burning hatred and a voracious blood-lust. These loin-clothed beasts were of a size to exceed even his girth and wore hideous battle scars throughout their slab muscled bodies, thick ropey veins clearly visible beneath their grey skin. Their vast siege engines, vast engines of destruction, trundled beside the invading army, pulled by beasts of burden that would dwarf the largest elephant.

Thor's heart quailed as he saw the numerous forces arrayed against his people then stiffened. Was he not Thor? Was he not the Odinson? Was he not the leader of the finest warrior race of this universe or any other?

Was he not an Avenger?

A snarl erupted from his lips as he raised Mjonlir to arms-length and shoulder-height, pointing it towards the approaching army. "HEAR ME!" His roar shook the castle walls. "I AM THOR, GOD OF THUNDER! YOU ARE FOOLS TO MAKE WAR ON THE ASGARDIANS! WE WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED OR BROUGHT DOWN! HEED WELL THE IDIOCY OF YOUR ACTIONS AND REMEMBER YOU BROUGHT THIS CARNAGE ON YOURSELVES!"

Even as he looked up at the cloudless sky, lightning erupted and flew down, strike after strike laying waste to the advancing army, incinerating siege engines and wiping out dozen after dozen of the monsters with each bolt. Chaos ensued as high winds whipped at the forces, knocking monsters the size of houses onto their rears, crushing smaller beasts and siege machines beneath them, fires igniting throughout the horde. Rain tore down at the horde, pushing them inexorably backwards even as the continuing winds whipped at them and the lightning tore holes through their numbers. A small smile tugged at Thor's lips as he watched the continuing devastation, the army slaughtered before they even reached the city's walls. "I am much satisfied," he murmured.

* * *

Toronto, Canada

"Keep them away from the civilians!" Guardian bellowed as he raised his palms and shot concussive blasts at a bus-sized horned beast charging towards him. The blasts caught the demon high in the chest, flinging it across the street and into the side of a house, bricks flying everywhere, dust falling over the creature.

"GAAAAAAAA!" The beast's hooked-teeth mouth parted in a roar as it leapt at him, its foul breath leading the way.

Guardian's jaw clenched as he hit the beast with another blast, smoke wafting off the gargantuan's frame as it fell with a ground-thudding shake. Hearing another monster charging in from the left, he spun to face it, his electro-magnetic blasts crashing into the creature's thick chest and his force field coming up a half second before the monster would have collided with him, knocking the monster back, a dazed look on its bestial features. Guardian flew forward, fists stretched out in front of him, crashing into the creature's snout before it had time to right itself, knocking it into and through a steel-railing fence, the monster sliding to a halt by the foot of an office building.

"My god." Guardian's eyes hardened as he looked around. Demons were swarming around his team even as his people struggled to defend the innocents caught up in the chaos.

* * *

Kiev, Ukraine

"Golubev! Use your telekinesis to push them towards Morning Star & Svyatogor!" Doctor Volkh yelled as he watched the monsters swarm through Kiev's blood-soaked streets. He nodded as the group's resident mutant obeyed, the mutant's jaw clenched and brow furrowed as he pushed the monsters back to his waiting team-mates. The Bogatyri might not be as famed as the Winter Guard, but they worked effectively as a team and served the Russian Federation well and with pride.

Volkh's smile widened as he watched a flying Morning Star incinerate several of the demons with strategically-placed heat blasts that kept the swarm off Svyatogor's back even as the cybernetically-enhanced hero tore the demons apart with his bare hands.

* * *

Bejiing, China

"NOOOOOOOO!" Collective Man's scream rang out, his eyes bulging in horror as he watched the Imperial Ancestral Hall explode, brick and wood flying everywhere, a horde of demons racing through the flaming ruins and towards his team. Gathering himself, he looked towards Radioactive Man. "Destroy them."

"With pleasure." Radioactive Man snarled before raising his hands and shooting energy blasts into the crowd even as Jade Dragon shape-shifted from his human form and into his dragon body, wings flapping mightily as he flew above the screaming demons and began gusting fire down onto them. Auric and Silver joined the dragon flying into the air, Auric's heat blasts tearing through those demons that Silver's freeze blasts froze into place.

But then the demons swarmed through the long ranges attacks, and Collective Man was forced to draw his brothers together into the one body and fight the demons hand to hand.

* * *

Paris, France

Wait, wait.

Sweat beaded on Adamantine's forehead as the monsters charged down the thankfully deserted Champs-Élysées, tourists and citizens terrified into the hastily set-up shelters. He looked towards Docteur Q and nodded.

Docteur Q returned his nod. "Anais, release your cats."

Adamantine smirked as a cavalcade of jungle cats freed from the city's zoos, cheetahs, lions, leopards, tigers, and their brethren roared out of a street ending and into the path of the waiting demons. Flashing teeth met demonic claw, blood spurting as fierce beasts fell on both sides.

* * *

SHIELD Helicarrier

"Damn it," Fury growled as he stared impotently at the screen before him before looking up at his Communications Officer. "Anything from Japan, yet?"

"No sir," the pimple-faced kid shook his head. "Our Tokyo office isn't responding to our calls."

Tokyo office. Jesus, Fury had to resist the urge to shake his head. This goddamn organisation sounded more like an ad agency rather than a security agency with each passing day. "Keep tryin'," he grunted. And he felt more like a middle-aged administrator rather than a grizzled warrior with each passing day too.

Jesus, what a goddamn world.

"SIR!" The Watch Officer's head snapped towards him, eyes widening in horror. "We've got intruders on board! None of our external sentries are responding to our hails."

Hell, Fury grunted as he arose. "Everyone get armed, looks like we've got trouble."

* * *

"I'm getting another report in from Russia," Winter Soldier reported, the World War II legend's tone grim. "Winter Guard are coming under attack in Moscow."

The Virginian's cold voice only added to the heavy silence filling the speeding jet. A silence that Faith inevitably felt it was her duty to break. "Well shit, Canada, US., Russia, UK, Wakanda, the way things are goin' we ain't gonna have anything left to save!"

"There's nothing like a motivating speech to get the troops going," Xander commented. "Unfortunately that was nothing like a motivating speech."

"How long until we reach Baghdad?" queried Strange.

"Another sixty minutes," Ms. Marvel reported from the front of the jet.

"Why couldn't you just teleport us in?" Faith demanded with a look towards the silently watching Devil-Slayer.

"Unfortunately there seems to be some sort of shield blocking the immediate area," Strange replied for the two mystics. "If either Eric or myself use our powers, not only will we be ineffective, the First will be alerted that were on the way."

"This keeps gettin' better and better," Faith grumbled. "So what's the plan?"

"We land just inside the shield, then sneak to the co-ordinates, only using our powers when and if discovered. As we have no idea what we're going up against or what assets if any the First has on the ground with him, we're going to go in stealthy and below the radar-."

"You hope," Faith grunted.

"Get in and get the task done then get out," Winter Soldier finished.

"Oh, oh." Everyone looked towards Ms. Marvel. "Our rear proximity alert just went off, we've got something big, coming in fast and hard." Ms. Marvel groaned as she glanced towards the rear sensor screen. "Oh no, it's one of those dragons, a big one."

"Okay," Winter Soldier rose and started towards the rear gunnery position, "I'll just -."

"Sit down!" Ms. Marvel interrupted. "Our one laser won't do much against that, our best chance is me out-flying that monster!"

* * *

Houston

Captain America grimaced, his shoulders aching as he held his shield in front of him, the metal heating as the draconian spewed fire on it. "Walker, Gallows! I want this thing flanked and finished off!"

"Cap!" Falcon bellowed. "You might wanna get a move on, there's another one of these ugly bastards coming!"

* * *

"Whoa!" Xander let out a shocked yell as Ms. Marvel pulled their jet up into a steep climb, then pitched sharply to the right, back-flipping over the pursuing gigantic reptile.

Flames scorched the jet's rear as the creature doggedly chased after them, the jet dropping into a descent even steeper than its previous climb. The creature's screech rang out over even the roar of their jet's engines as it turned in mid-flight and continued after them, its long claws reaching for them like a giant hawk hunting a mouse.

"Whoa!" Xander wailed again as the jet flipped onto its side, dodging between the dragon's grasping talons. He pitched forward in his seat, seat belt jamming into his shoulder, when Ms. Marvel slammed on the reverse thrusters and spun the jet away from the cawing gargantuan.

Suddenly Strange spoke, his voice cold and controlled. "Carol, head for that cloud to the right up, wait until you're almost at the top, then drop hard and shoot back on course, full speed ahead."

* * *

NY

Black Tarantula chuckled as he crept through the chaotic city, fire engine and police sirens blaring in the distance. Today might be the apocalypse, but with the heroes occupied for him it was the perfect time for a robbery. Tarantula's smirk widened as he reached the front of the bank, coiled a fist, and drove his hand through the door's reinforced window.

Alarms shrieked as he stepped uncaringly through the broken window, confident in the knowledge the alarms would remain unanswered. Instead of rushing, he ambled nonchalantly through the gleaming marble floored building, its emptiness echoing back at him. The moment he reached the steel vault door, he grabbed a hold of the door handle and yanked, muscles writhing as he pulled.

Concrete cracked as the safe flew away from the wall. He dropped it on the floor, the marble straining and cracking under its weight. Then he turned back to the vault and smirked at the piles and piles of cash stacked up inside there. He shouldered his sports bag to the floor, crouched down beside it, and opened it, pulling the three other empty bags inside it out before rising and walking into the vault, and beginning to fill them with cash.

Less than twenty minutes later and he was ambling back out, a pair of stuffed-full bags hung over either shoulder, whistling a care-free tune as he went. Striding outside, he started through the mostly empty but far from quiet city, force of habit pushing him to the street's shadows as he passed by abandoned vehicles and wrecked buildings.

"Man, where do you guys get these mugs? Uglies Anonymous?"

Black Tarantula sighed as the all-too familiar voice of New York's most well-known and most irritating super-hero reached his ears. His mood taking a downturn, he continued to stalk through the shadows, hoping he'd be able to avoid the hero.

His eyes narrowed as he turned a corner to find the super-hero surrounded by about eight horned, van-sized creatures with spikes jutting out of their wide shoulders. He winced as he watched Spiderman duck under a left from one creature, catch it with an uppercut on the jaw while another kicked him in the ribs, staggering him to the side where yet another demon caught him with a kick to the other side.

Which raised a very interesting question, mused Black Tarantula as he crouched and watched, why the hell wasn't the hero using his superior agility? Despite all appearances to the contrary, Spidey wasn't an idiot.

Even as he asked the question, his blood chilled as he saw the answer; a wounded Latino woman lying under a mini-van behind the super-hero, three kids under ten huddled beside her. Spidey couldn't, wouldn't, use his advantages, because the moment he did, he'd leave the family helpless.

Even as the realisation hit him, Spidey folded like a cheap suit, one of the monsters grabbing the battered super-hero and flinging him into the side of the mini-van. ""Infierno ah!" Black Tarantula cursed as he dropped his bags and raced into the battle, grasping the nearest of the demons by its shoulder spikes and flinging it into the wall across the street, bricks shattering with the force of its impact.

Another demon lumbered around to face him, in time to catch an overhand right to the face that sent the creature's face crashing inwards, blood flying everywhere. And then the other demons were swarming onto him, gnarled, warty spade-sized fists smashing down on him as he returned their attack with interest, demonic bones crunching and shattering before his assaults even as he took their pummelling.

Then one too many blows thundered down onto his head knocked him to one knee, stars exploding before his eyes. A knee crashed into his jaw, snapping his head back with enough force to tear it from a normal's neck.

Even as he fell onto his back, Black Tarantula saw a black cloud appear in the sky above, various figures falling through its rippling shroud. Black Tarantula gasped as he saw Luke Cage land in the centre of the demons, the beefy African-American tearing into the monsters, crimson spewing as limbs and heads were torn asunder.

And then just like that it was over, Cage and his team having finished off the remaining demons, the streets now soaked with blood and covered in dismembered body parts. "Sweet Christmas," Cage strode over to him as he leaned against the side of a car, "Black Tarantula helping Spiderman, what's wrong with this picture?"

Black Tarantula pointed under the car. "Family stuck under that car."

"Ah hell," Cage squatted down, grabbed the rear bumper, and lifted the car, "ma'am, you and the kids can get out now. Cloak," the African-American super-hero looked towards the younger black, "take the family to the shelter on Kingsbridge Heights." As Cloak and the rescued family disappeared, Cage glanced towards Spiderman being helped up by Iron Fist. "You okay Spidey?" The Spiderman nodded wearily, too beaten even for a quip about a tarantula helping a spider. "Good, you'll be handy." Cage looked towards him. "Wanna make a difference?"

Black Tarantula stared at the imposing super hero for a long second before nodding. "Yeah, I do." Some things were more important than money.

* * *

The moment their jet entered the cloud, the dragon's flame-breath chasing after them, Strange let out a yell. "PROESTIGIUM!" The Sorcerer Supreme glanced towards Carol. "Now drop!"

Xander's solitary eye widened as they dropped out of the cloud just as the dragon entered, duplicates of their jet likewise exiting the cloud to the left and right, as well as above. Flames jetted from their engines as they sped off, the dragon screaming angrily as it cast hateful looks in the direction of every jet as it struggled to decide which to follow, the seconds lost allowing them to get further and further away from the monster.

* * *

Fury groaned as he crashed into the ship's bulkhead, the spike-covered creature raced at him and his companions, the three-fingered claws on the end of each of its six arms swinging wildly. Fury forced away the hurt to swing his Ingram Mac-10 up, loosening the remainder of his magazine into the monster, blood blossoming out of its splotch-covered back as it fell to the ground, quivering spasmodically.

"Shit," Fury slammed the last of his magazines into his Ingram even as he glanced at those who'd followed him out of the bridge. Blood thundered and anger filled him as he realised that of the eight bridge officers who'd started the perilous journey, only four remained, and they still had a way to go to make the exit.

Fury grimaced as he noted the greyish pallor of the Operations Officer, blood soaking a crudely jacket folded and pressed against his gut wound, two of his companions holding him up. "You'll be okay kid," he gruffly commented. "Just hold on and we'll get you some help soon." Fury turned back to the passageway, wincing at the scorched walls and bloody floor, the smell of death thick in the air. "Come on, stay close."

They'd barely got a dozen steps when Fury raised a hand motioning his followers to stop by a corner, his heart thumped as he listened to the approaching steps, hand grasping the Ingram growing clammier and clammier by the second. "Colonel, you're gonna have to be quieter than that if you don't want me to hear you."

Fury relaxed slightly as he recognised the voice and the bald-headed black with the alien gauntlet fixed to his arm turned the corner to face him. "Green, good to see you."

"And you," the black growled right back at him, "what's the plan, sir?"

"Take the rear, we're getting out." Fury replied before starting off again, wincing slightly as he passed by a pair of severed heads, their corpses some thirty feet away.

"Ah hell," Gauntlet groaned as they reached a crossroads only to find demons coming at them from the left and right, and demons in the passageway feeding.

"Let's go back," Fury ordered, his insides chilling.

"We can't!" one of his subordinates cried. "There's demons behind us."

Suddenly the ceiling imploded and a figure with platinum blond hair, his lithe frame clothed in a green and white costume landed just in front of them, an arrogant smirk on his face. "I am Noh-Varr, a warrior of the Kree Empire, and in the name of the Kree Empire, I declare earth a protected world!"

Fury grinned as the Kree super-hero flew into the advancing demons, body parts and blood flying everywhere. "Looks like the 7th cavalry's in town."

* * *

"Holy shit," Faith gasped as she peered down at the display screen in front of her. Flames shot out of destroyed buildings, thick clouds of smoke partially obscuring the view, but not enough to hide the corpses of soldiers and civilians alike strewn in piles throughout the ancient metropolis. "Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

"Yeah, Baghdad's ablaze," Winter Soldier said.

"And we're running straight in the middle of that," Faith shook her head. This verse got better and better by the day.


	22. Chapter 22

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure (22/?)**

The moment Ms. Marvel landed them in the shadows of a demolished temple, Winter Soldier looked around the tension-filled jet. "We keep things stealthy out there people," he ordered. "Doc," the world war II legend glanced towards the Sorcerer Supreme, "you said that the First would be able to sense your magics?"

"Yes," Strange nodded. "That's correct."

Winter Soldier scowled. "Then you and Devil-Slayer are on the reverse list, neither of you use your powers unless your lives are endangered or unless we're already discovered. Everyone stick stick together. If we do get split up, Devil-Slayer and Blade take the kids," Faith's mouth opened in a protest then clamped her jaw shut at the man's steel-eyed look, "and go in sneaky, the rest of us will go in hard, occupying any of the enemy's heavy hitters and drawing the bulk of whatever forces there are out there to us. Questions?" The veteran soldier nodded briskly at the answering silence. "Blade cover the rear, Psylocke, take the front."

Xander winced as they started through the city, the streets Psylocke unerringly led them through deserted, but the cries of the injured and dying reaching their ears. "We should help-."

"Negatory!" Winter Soldier's gaze snapped to him, the soldier's jaw clenching angrily. "We have our mission, and if we fail, everyone dies!"

Xander's single eye hardened, mouth opening in an enraged denunciation. "Relax, hon," Faith squeezed his shoulder. "I don't like it any more than you do, but the dude's right. We stop to save a few, get diverted, everyone bites the big one."

"Fine," Xander grated.

* * *

Olympus

Hercules' mace swung left to right, smiting the Minatours crowding around them, Ares laughing like the homicidal loon Hercules always knew he was, Ares' axe slicing through the beasts' throats, showering them both with blood.

Suddenly Hercules joined his half-brother in bouts of roaring laughter even as he continued to fight. By the gods, it was glorious to be alive!

* * *

"Glad we're agreed," Barnes rumbled as he climbed over a pile of rubble, caused not by the recent trouble but by the nation's endless cycle of violence and war. Next he crept by a pair of parked, rusted cars, noting with distaste the signs of dereliction so familiar to a veteran of as many conflicts as him. "Doc," he glanced over his shoulder to the Sorcerer Supreme, "any idea when all this damage, this invasion becomes irreversible?"

"Within two to three days," Strange replied. "I'm sorry I can't be more accurate than that, but it all depends on how quickly the creatures escape from their hell dimensions, how well the world's military forces and our fellow metas are able to defend , and how quickly the hordes manage to slaughter people."

Winter Soldier grimaced at the thought of the thousands world-wide that might die every minute it took for them to get to Kull's Cage. Barnes glanced towards Xander. "That's why getting there has to be our priority." Xander scowled then nodded reluctantly. Satisfied his point had been made, Barnes turned his gaze ahead. "Operational silence."

Dust swirled up from bomb-damaged streets, flattened buildings only partially obscuring them from any prowling eyes. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled uneasily as they crept through the ruined city, eyes darting from wrecked building to wrecked building, his group hiding in shadows or under abandoned cars when anyone passed by.

Winter Soldier grimaced as they crawled through the eerily deserted barricades just outside the Assassin's Gate, stomach twisting at the uselessly spent shells littering the ground, and the blood splattered on the sandbags and barbed wire. He could only imagine what had happened to the soldiers stationed here. Prepared to deal with hostile soldiers and insurgents perhaps, but hordes of rampaging demons?

Winter Soldier's grimace deepened. They perhaps slowed them down for a couple of minutes.

The atmosphere grew still grimmer as they made their way through the Assassin's Gate itself and into the exposed area beyond. Their eyes shot nervously around for any sight of trouble.

Suddenly Psylocke dropped to one knee and raised her fist, halting them behind an over-turned, scorch-marked wagon. Winter Soldier hurried up to the British telepath and risked a peek around the wagon's rear, eyes widening at the rampaging mass of monsters charging them. Spinning around, he looked towards Devil-Slayer. "Get them out of here now, Blade, you go with them!"

"I hear," Devil-Slayer pulled his cloak out to envelop the two dimensional travellers and the vampire hunter, "I obey!"

Strange let out a groan the moment the quartet had disappeared. "Mordo, Scratch, and Le Fay seek to assail us with magics."

"Hold them off, Doc," Winter Soldier tersely ordered between assault rifle blasts into the charging mob, Beta Ray Bill and Ms. Marvel both sending energy blasts into the mob, ripping through the screaming demons. And then they reached the wagon, swarming over them like a plague.

* * *

Tokyo

Kenuicho Harada's armour was soaked in blood, his arms burning as his sword slashed left and right. Behind him the Big Hero Six fought bravely, the city shrieking as its skyscrapers smouldered and burnt.

* * *

"Shit," Faith grunted as her vision cleared to reveal they were in a park behind what looked to be a library, stood in front of a stone tomb with its lid missing. Faith glanced towards Devil-Slayer. "That was a hell of a ride."

"Hell is closer than you know," Devil-Slayer growled before striding over to the tomb and peering down into its depths, shining a torch on the stone steps leading down.

"You're a cheery one aren't you?" Xander queried. "Fun at parties too I'd bet."

"Somehow I imagine he doesn't get many invitations," Faith muttered.

Blade spoke before Devil-Slayer had chance. "I'll lead, Devil-Slayer, bring up the rear. If there's any trouble, let us deal with it. Your responsibility is closing the Cage."

Faith opened her mouth to protest then nodded brusquely. As much as she hated the idea of leaving the fighting to others, she realised the other two were better able to get it done than her, 'sides her mission was more important than a wild brawl. "Let's get this done."

* * *

"Damn it!" Winter Soldier threw his assault rifle away, raised his bionic arm and began blasting the beasts swarming around his party with electric blasts, incinerating horned horror after horned horror.

* * *

The tunnel's air was dank and their passing only illuminated by Blade's torch, but it gave enough light for them to notice other tracks in the thick dust, denoting that they were not the first to pass this way. Just as they reached a left hand corner, Blade stopped suddenly and motioned Devil Slayer forward.

Devil Slayer nodded before teleporting himself around the corner, grabbing a hold of Bullseye stood there, and teleporting himself away.

Well not away, not exactly.

"Let me go!" Bullseye screamed as they re-materialised two thousand feet above their starting point, the criminal's eyes bulging as they plunged to the ground, wind whistling around them.

"If you insist." Devil-Slayer released his grip on the screaming crook before teleporting himself back to his original position, the hired killer plunging to the ground. Blade raised an eyebrow as he materialised beside the dark-skinned vampire hunter. "He's dealt with."

* * *

She-Thing saw Winter Soldier go down under a swarm of wart-faced monsters out of the corner of her eye and launched herself towards the soldier, flinging his attackers heedlessly away. Over head flew Beta Ray Bill and Ms. Marvel, battling winged nightmares with typical steadfastness.

* * *

"Okay," Blade growled as they entered a long, wide cavern easily five hundred yards long and about half that wide wide, sparsely illuminated by wall-mounted bush torches. "So this is a dead end."

"You can't see that at the far end?" Faith hissed as she stared at the glowing cage, her entire being telling her to get the hell out of here, but knowing she had a job to do, no matter how much she just wanted to crawl into the nearest corner and puke. Faith forced her shaking limbs under control, ignoring the sweat streaming down her.

Yeah, a job to do, fucking A. A world to save, again.

"No," Blade growled as a quartet of figures stepped out of the darkness, all dressed in the elaborate costumes that could only mean they were yet more of these nutty characters that Xander idolised, "but I see them."

"Do your job," Devil-Slayer cracked his neck, "we'll do ours."

"Right," Faith looked towards Xander and joined him in edging around the far side of the cavern. "Son of a bitch." Her stomach flipped and her usually sure gait missed a step when the First appeared before them in the guise of her first Watcher.

"Oh Faithie, you didn't think it would be as easy as all that did you?"

* * *

Blade lunged forward, then leaned away from Bartoc's lead thrust kick, Blade's foot powering out to stomp on the Frenchman's grounded ankle. The assassin fell away with a grunt, but Paladin was there before Blade could press his advantage, forcing him back with a flurry of blows and kicks. Blade cursed as one of the quartet broke away, racing towards the Slayer and her companion. Blade started after him only to be forced back by Crossbones' powerfully thrown punches.

* * *

Beta Ray Bill hovered before the horned mastodon snarling before him. "Turn aside behmonth," Beta Ray Bill warned. "Or face the wrath of one gods call friend."

"Face this!" Rhino howled before charging him, horn down, feet eating up the distance between them.

Beta Ray nodded as he raised Stormbringer before him. "As you wish." Blue lightning danced around the mace's head then shot out towards the advancing giant, the energy crashing into the villain, knocking him to the ground. The Rhino gamely attempted to rise, but Beta Ray flung his mace to crash into the villain's head, knocking him back down.

* * *

Faith faltered at the First's horrifying appearance, but kept her gaze fixed ahead, continuing on her way as she tried and failed to cut out the First's all too familiar voice. "You always were a worthless slut," the First taunted. "But even you could do better than this one-eyed freak."

Xander stiffened. "One of them's coming towards us."

"Seen him," Faith nodded and eyed the athletically-built man advancing on them, the man's skull-like mask hidden under a cowl, his grey cape tapering almost to the floor. "Who's this?"

"The Taskmaster, he has the power of photographic reflexes meaning he's learnt all the major fighting styles of the verse's big hitters just by watching," Xander babbled. "Good news is apart from that skill he's just a normal although really well-conditioned human."

"Right," Faith moved her head from side to side, cracking her neck, eyes remaining on the meta-human. "In that case, you leave him to me and close the cage." Faith shook her head at Xander's shocked look. "Don't bother, just do it."

Faith blurred forward the moment Xander started forward, the Taskmaster twisting towards her man, and then back at her, shooting out a front kick that she barely managed to sway away from, her hand shooting out to grab the man's heel and her other palm shooting down to crash into his knee.

The man's elbow crashed into the side of her head, snapping her head to the side, stars erupting before her eyes. Faith stumbled away, leaping over a leg-sweep, her own foot shooting out in a thrust kick that her crouching adversary leaned under.

Faith bared her teeth in a scowl as she landed in a crouch, fists clenched. Their lighting-fast dance had already told her that her opponent was very, very good, maybe better than her, but not as fast, powerful, or durable. Faith snarled, she'd have to take some hits to deliver her own, and just hope she won a battle of attrition.

Faith lunged to meet the Taskmaster then went left, ducking beneath her rival's hastily flung elbow and in turn crashing her own heel into the back of her rival's calf, knocking him stumbling forward. Faith glided into position behind him, reaching around to grab him in a chokehold.

"SHIT!" Her mouth filled with blood when the Taskmaster drove his head back and into her face. Stunned, Faith stumbled back, then dropped into a crouch beneath the Taskmaster's flawlessly-executed reverse roundhouse kick, her hand shooting up to grab the meta's ankle and yank him towards her.

Faith launched herself to meet the stumbling meta the moment she released her grip on his ankle. Pain flared down Faith's right arm when the Taskmaster crashed a karate chop down on her neck, but she gutted through it to wrap her arms around the masked warrior and fling him over her into a released belly to belly suplex.

Faith grunted as she hit the ground, rolling over and up in time to duck under a straight right, her own foot shooting out to stamp on her rival's lead shin. Taskmaster grunted, stumbling away, Faith racing to intercept with a front kick to the gut.

Taskmaster sidestepped and reached for her ankle, only for Faith to pull back, taking another elbow to the side of the head as price for avoiding a leg-throw or lock. Faith swayed as Taskmaster shot off a right to the head. Blood spurted from her mouth as the blow crashed home, Faith allowing the blow to connect in the hope that the Taskmaster would believe her out on her feet and close.

Faith hid a grin as the Taskmaster sprang forward, dropping to her knees and reaching out to grab the meta behind his knees and fling her over her head. Faith twisted around in time to see the meta land on his shoulder, a loud crack ringing out.

Faith strode over to the battered meta as he made it to his knees, driving her own knee up into his gut, then grabbing the Taskmaster in a front chokehold, cinching in tight, and continuing to batter him with knees to the torso until he went limp. Faith flung the limp body aside, and looked towards Xander, mouth falling open. "Oh crap."

* * *

Atlantis

Namor snarled as the kraken wrapped its tentacles around him with rib-crushing force, his trident driving deep down into its single, unblinking eye. Yellow squelched out of the injured orb as the leviathan flung him around in its death-throes. At the very moment he thought his ribs would snap with the pressure, the creature flung him away then sunk lifelessly to the ocean floor.

Namor growled as he looked around, fury filling him as he saw the corpses of some of his Imperial Guard likewise sinking to the floor even as the surviving members continued their desperate fight.

* * *

The battle raging around him left Strange untouched on a physical level at least. But it was a different matter on spiritual, metaphysical, and mental levels.

Sweat poured off him, jaw clenched and every muscle seemingly on fire as his enemies battered his mystical defences, seeking a way to remove him from the fight so they could in turn mystically attack his companions. His companions, Strange fought away black dots before his eyes at the thought of his team-mates. He swayed from side to side as he took the barrage, he wouldn't fail his companions.

* * *

"I think it's time we changed sides," Loki muttered to his companions before turning his attention to the mages assailing Strange, changing from assistance to brutal attacks.

"I concur," Magneto picked up a turned-over bakery van and dropped it on top of Rough-house, downing the mysterious creature.

"Good," Doom raised his hands and blasted Sabretooth in the back, his energy blasts burning flesh from the mutant's brawny frame as he buckled to his knees, the energy burning into the ill-mannered buffoon, "I tire of these creatures."

* * *

Xander rushed through the long cavern, heart thundering. He wasn't so foolish as to think just walking into the Cage would immediately stop the chaos going on around them, but it would be a start.

He skidded to a halt when a trio of red-cowled ninjas each brandishing kamas stepped out of the shadows just ahead. "The Hand," Xander croaked, mouth drying. Xander shook away his fear, he wasn't just a comic book geek anymore, he'd trained with vampires, Slayers, and all manner of enhanced beings. "Okay," he dropped into a crouch. "Let's do this."

Two of the Ninjas charged forward in a pincher movement, the third lurking behind. Xander's hand dipped inside his jacket, drawing and firing his .32 in one smooth motion. Blood splattered from the right Ninja's chest, dropping him.

Xander spun to face the other. "Ahhh!" Pain lanced through his arm when the Ninja's sickle sliced down and into his gun-arm. His leather jacket protected him from most but not all of the blow, but his gun dropped from his hand and to the ground.

Blood spurted from his arm as he stumbled backwards, darting to the left away from an attempted skull-cleaving, his arm shooting out to drive his knuckles into the Ninja's throat. The Ninja stumbled backwards, kama flickering up in a back-handed slash that would have taken Xander's face off if he hadn't leapt back, driving a side thrust kick into the Ninja's stomach.

The Ninja folded like a deck-chair, but the other Ninja raced in before Xander could press his advantage. "Ahhh!" Xander leaned away from another attempted skull-cleaving, this time catching the sickle's point in his right shoulder, blood spurting from the wound.

Ignoring the pain ravaging him, Xander lunged at his companion, driving the top of his head into the ninja's face, snapping his head back as Xander dropped to one knee and drove his fist up into the Hand assassin's groin. The Ninja croaked, doubling up as Xander leapt up to press his advantage only to be forced to change his focus when the other surviving ninja charged in.

Xander reached up and grabbed the ninja's sickle-hand at the wrist as it swung in, his other fist thudding into the man's jaw and knee driving up into his crotch before twisting at the waist and flinging the slighter man away. Xander sidestepped the other ninja as he charged in, grabbed him by the back of his cowl and drove him face-first into the cavern's wall.

Sensing the other ninja charging in from behind, Xander spun away. "AHHHH!" He screamed as pain blazed through his back, the Ninja's sickle tearing through his jacket to lash open a bloody furrow down his upper back. Xander winced as he twisted to face the remaining man, a front thrust kick smashing into his chest, air gusting from his lungs as he slumped to the ground, a rib cracking under the kick's impact.

"That's my boytoy." Suddenly a bloody-looking Faith was between him and the surviving Ninja. "And no-body fucks with him!" The ninja was on a sudden retreat, beaten back by a blistering barrage of blows and kicks. "Xan! Close the fucking cage."

"Me Jane," Xander muttered as he pulled himself up and stumbled towards the cage, body aching, vision blurred, and air rattling in his tortured lungs as he ignored the First's enraged rantings whispering in his ear, "her Tarzan." Every step sent painful jolts vibrating through his injured, blood dripping from him as he staggered forward, breath rattling hurtfully around his chest, and then he fell forward and through the cage, mercifully unconscious before he hit the unyielding ground.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the First screamed, rippled and disappeared.

* * *

Phoenix, Arizona

His arms aching and blood dripping into his eyes from a forehead slash, American Eagle threw a punch at the demon in front of him, then blinked as the demon disappeared. His heart leapt as he spun around to find the demons likewise disappearing all around him and his team.

They'd won.


	23. Chapter 23

**FIC: A Most Marvellous Adventure Finale**

Stark Tower

Tony rose from his seat when She-Hulk strode in. "Jennifer, thank you for coming."

"Bury a friend, take in the sights, see Stark Tower, it's practically part of the tourist tour."

Tony ignored the bitterness in his friend's tone. Given what they'd all been through, not to mention the memorial service just the previous day, a little bitterness had to be expected. "I thought we needed to meet to discuss repl-, recruiting new members into the Avengers."

Jennifer's angry smirk revealed she'd noticed his change of words. "Moving a little quickly aren't you? Bill and Clint are hardly cold."

Stark's eyes hardened. That was a jibe too far. "Don't you dare, don't you dare say Bill and Clint weren't important to me," he snapped before forcing himself to calm. "However we have to think of more than just ourselves. We have people to protect. There's plenty of threats still out there – Apocalypse, Kang, Doom, The Presence, Loki, High Evolutionary, The Master of the World. Anyone of them could cause untold damage and casualties if we're not there to stop them!"

"You're right," Jennifer nodded stiffly. "I'm sorry. Do you have anyone in mind?"

"According to Hercules, Ares aided him during the recent difficulties," Tony replied. "We'd be fools not to take advantage of this recent change of behaviour and at least try and turn him to our side."

"Ares is a powerful force either for good or for evil," Jennifer agreed. "And he does have a certain code of honour that he adheres to in his own way. If he's on my team, Hercules can keep an eye on him."

"Agreed," Stark nodded. "I'm thinking of offering places to Force and Devil Slayer, Walker has always been a protégée of mine, and Payne acquitted himself well on his mission to Baghdad."

"How did Sharon Ventura do?" Jennifer queried.

Stark shrugged. "She did fine. Are you thinking of asking her?"

"As you pointed out, we can't have too many members," Jennifer replied. "Now is that all?"

"Not quite," Stark hesitated before continuing. "This doesn't impact on your team, but I'd like your input as an Avengers Team Leader."

"I'm intrigued," the lawyer leaned back in her seat. "Go on."

"This time our problem came from hell dimensions," Stark commented. "But often the problems we face come from alien sources. Kang, Galactus, Thanos, the Skrulls, and the Kree to name just a few examples. I've been thinking that perhaps it's time we created to police the cosmos, to stop these problems before they actually reach here. Not to mention any other peace-loving civilisation."

Jennifer smiled. "A sort of Cosmic Avengers?"

"Precisely," Stark agreed.

"And who do you have in mind?" Jennifer queried.

"I was thinking of asking Beta Ray Bill to lead the group and inviting Quasar, Noh-Varr, Gamora, and Thundra to join."

"An interesting selection," Jennifer commented before hesitating. "I've heard rumours that there's going to be a re-organisation of our world?"

"Yes," Stark nodded, his mood darkening. "With all the losses we've taken, a number of teams are recruiting, we might want to take some time to grieve those we've lost, but we can't afford to take our eye off the ball."

* * *

Harlem, NY

"Hey," Cage nodded at him as he walked into the office. "Glad you came." The powerfully-built black glanced at the Latina beauty sat in the office. "You know the White Tiger."

Black Tarantula inclined his head slightly in the direction of his fellow meta. "Heard of, but never had the pleasure."

"And this," Cage looked towards an athletically built black man, "is Kasper Cole."

"Hey," the man grunted.

"You wanna take a seat?"

"Sure," the chair creaked when he sat on it, but he guessed the chairs were all reinforced to take Cage's weight, so he was reasonably sure it would hold.

"Well, thank you both for coming." Cage leaned forward in his chair, hands clasped together and tree-trunk forearms resting on the desk before him. "Given recent events-."

"Did Shang-Chi-."

"He didn't make it." Cage interrupted him with a shake of the head, the black's face unreadable. "Anyway, given recent events we've decided to expand our operations." Cage looked from White Tiger to him and back again before continuing. "We're expanding our operations, we've already asked some others, but they weren't interested. Not that you're second choice or anything, I was going to ask you-." Cage shook his head. "Ah sweet Christmas, I'm making a hell of a mess of this. Heroes For Hire wants you to join us."

"Really?" White Tiger gasped. "I'm in."

Cole shrugged then nodded. "Count me in."

Black Tarantula took rather longer to answer. He thought about people running towards him for help rather than away from him in fear. He thought about working with people he could trust rather than constantly wondering about when he was going to get the knife in his back. He thought about having people's respect rather than their fearful loathing.

Then he wondered why it was taking him so long to answer. "I'm in."

* * *

London

Blade crouched in the alley outside the bar, eyes narrowed as he kept part of his attention on the pub's entrance and part on checking his armoury before he attacked the trio of vampires he'd tracked here. Suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck sprang up, instinct spinning around in a crouch to confront the figure stepping through the brick wall behind him.

"Strange," he growled. "Whatever you want, I'm busy."

The Sorcerer Supreme was unmoved by his tone. "I've come to make you an offer-."

"Whatever it is," he turned back towards the pub, "I'm not interested."

"I've made the same offer to Gargoyle and he's agreed," Strange continued over him. "The Defenders want you."

"You gonna just hunt vamps?" he queried.

"Well no-."

"Then I ain't interested."

* * *

"Sorry I'm late," Stark apologised as he strode into the secret boardroom, "Avengers business."

"We've all had busy days," Strange responded. "I've been recruiting for the Defenders."

"Any luck?" Stark queried.

"More bad than good," Strange grimaced. "Gargoyle agreed to join, but Voodoo wouldn't leave Haiti and Blade isn't interested in fighting anything other than vampires."

"I assume this meeting was called for something other than gossip?" snapped Namor.

Stark glanced at the prince of Atlantis. If anyone could be relied on to raise the tension in a room, it was the ever warm and welcoming Namor. "During this most recent crisis, a number of skirmishes almost broke out between us. Black Bolt considered attacking the earth, Charles had to restrain a number of his own mutants, and Namor was considering an attack on the surface only to be talked out of it by Stephen."

"And your point is?" Namor grunted.

"I think we should expand our numbers to improve the lines of communication. What if for example the Eternals had come under attack from the Sentinels and believing it the actions of a legitimate government declared war on us? Or if these attacks had provoked the Russian and Chinese governments into a nuclear exchange?"

The room was silent for a few seconds as Stark's nightmare scenarios sunk in. "Who would you suggest for membership?"

Stark nodded at Xavier. "Apart from Namor and Black Bolt, we're all Americans, we need to expand membership to include other nations. My first candidate would be Zuras."

"As leader of the Eternals he has a considerable number of super-powered beings under his leadership," Strange nodded. "A good choice."

"Luke Cage?" Stark suggested.

"No," Richards shook his head. "Cage is a good man, but one with certain beliefs. He'd never agree to keep our group secret from his team-mates."

"I agree, he wouldn't see our goals only compare us to secret societies of the past," Strange said. The Sorcerer Supreme smiled bitterly. "He's far too noble for our disreputable group."

"What about Thor?" Namor suggested. "It would perhaps benefit us to have someone amongst our number who represents the pantheons?"

"A good idea but not Thor," Stark shook his head. "The Thunder God is probably the finest warrior on this planet," Namor let out a derisive snort, "but there's no way either he or Hercules would ever keep a secret like this from Steve. They respect him too much."

"Athena then?" Strange suggested. "She's a cagey one."

Richards glanced at Stark. "Could you be trusted to keep your hands to yourself?"

"Funny," Stark grunted.

The conversation continued for some time, possible members brought up, either accepted or rejected, and possible ways of approaching them discussed. "What about Fury?" Richards queried. "He runs much of the global intelligence community."

"And that's also the major reason we shouldn't invite him," Stark said. "He's one of the major people we should be keeping an eye on."

"Is that all?" queried Namor. "Only I have business to attend to."

"No," Stark said. "There's one more thing. During the recent unpleasantness, a number of young\inexperienced metas got involved in the fighting. Some did well, some didn't, some," Stark grimaced, "some died."

"Wars usually have casualties," Namor commented.

Stark fixed the prince with a hard stare. "Which doesn't mean we shouldn't seek to minimise them if at all possible."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Richards queried.

Stark looked towards the leader of Fantastic Four. "An academy for metas, irrespective of where their powers come from and independent of government. Based in the US., but open to all, regardless of nation and purely voluntary."

"A lofty not to mention ambitious idea," Strange commented. "And how would you fund it?"

"A number amongst the meta community are worth a lot of money," Stark replied. "I thought between Stark Industries, Fireheart Enterprises, Oracle Corporation," he looked towards Namor before continuing, "Rand Corporation, and Worthington Industries we could raise ample funds."

"A worthy goal," Namor nodded brusquely. "Oracle Corporation will put in 20%."

* * *

SHIELD HQ

Faith glanced at Xan as the door buzzed and slid open. "It'll be fine," she soothed even as her heart thudded.

"Yeah," Xander sounded about as convinced as she felt as they strode into Fury's office.

Fury glanced up from behind his desk as they entered. "You did good work in Baghdad," the world war II veteran nodded towards the empty seats the other side of his desk. After a second, the duo obeyed and sat down. "But the question is what to do with you now?"

"Huh," Xander raised an eyebrow. "Send us home."

"Can't do that I'm afraid." Faith wasn't quite sure how she felt when Fury shook his head. On the one hand, she sure didn't like being this low on the food chain but on the other, there wasn't much she'd miss from the old world. "According to Doctor Strange opening a portal to send you back through to your dimension would cause some sort of energy cascade that would rip open portals to multiple dimensions."

"Huh," Faith's eyes narrowed. "Not sayin' you're lying or anythin', but why didn't that happen when we first came through?"

Fury smirked at Xander's groan. "According to the Sorcerer Supreme, the First was a being of such power that all the power of the spell that brought you here was used up transporting him. So very little in the way of collateral damage."

"Right," Faith took a second to absorb that.

"So now you're stuck here, we'd like to offer you a job."

"SHIELD agents?" It was Faith's turn to groan at Xander's gushing. Oh god, he could be so embarrassing at times. "That is so cool!"

"Not exactly," Fury allowed himself a tight-lipped smile. "Public opinion after the recent troubles has forced the world's governments to look into funding a department similar to SHIELD but dealing with the supernatural."

"And you want us to work for it?" Xander queried.

"No," Fury smirked. "I want you to run it."

The two of them sat in open-mouthed shock but Xander was first to manage to speak. "Huh, but don't the Defenders deal with the supernatural?"

"That's you Harris, always duckin' the work," Faith snarked.

Fury chuckled before replying to Xan's query. "Ostensibly yes, but they deal with world-ending threats, what we want you to deal with is street level threats. A pack of vampires in Kentucky, a corrupt Voodoo priest in New Orleans, a necromancer in France, that sort of thing."

"Right," Faith forced herself to focus, "and what would we be doing?"

"Recruiting and training agents, setting up protocols, buying equipment, basically my job only on a smaller scale," Fury replied.

"Toots, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship."

Fury sighed and looked at her. "Is he always like this?"

"'Fraid so," Faith replied. Fury shook his head and sighed. "Just wait 'til you get to know him, you'll be doin' that a hell of a lot."

* * *

"Typhon! I'm surprised you came," Loki smiled as he greeted the tall, bearded man sat in the office's reception area.

His guest stood an easy six eight, his custom-made black suit failing to hide either his monstrous physique and the bristling brutality within. His face was covered in a thick, dark beard while his black eyes were remorselessly pitiless. "I have to admit," his growl rumbled out of his chest, "to a certain curiosity about your alliance."

"You will get control of Olympus, I get Asgard."

Typhon nodded as he rose. "It is easier to say than to do, far easier." The titan's face darkened. "Those who would stand against us have many allies."

"And now so do we." Loki smirked as he strode past his guest and opened the walnut-coloured doors behind him, revealing a room with a long table with a number of very infamous people sat around it.

Sebastian Shaw was sat nearest left. The pony-tailed leader of the Hellfire Club had been promised ascendancy over mutants.

Opposite him sat the Mandarin, the gaunt-faced, impassive Oriental having been promised rulership of the Far East.

Beside the Mandarin sat the thick-shouldered, bald-headed Kingpin. The crimelord had been promised control of the soon to be legalised gambling, in addition to loan-sharking, extortion, prostitution, and drug trades in return for his seat at the table.

Opposite the Kingpin sat the cowled menace that was Count Doom, the ruler hoping to expand his influence throughout Europe.

Loki admitted there were some missing faces. He'd hoped to bring Mr. Sinister but Shaw would never countenance sitting at a table with him and nobody trusted either the Red Skull or Selene. Still, those sat here were the elite, and one way or another they would take over the world.

Loki smiled. Yes they were the elite, and soon they'd be manipulating the likes of U-Foes, Wrecking Crew, Serpent Squad, Lethal Legion, Sinister Six, Maurders, and Reavers to do their being.

Loki's smirk broadened. Yes it was their time now.

The End

**A\N:** And next, the sequel to 'A Most Marvellous Adventure', what happens when gods go mad? God Wars.


End file.
